Second Life
by JadeDragonMTR
Summary: This story starts from right after the Normandy SR1's destruction and covers the two years while Shepard's gone, her resurrection and ME 2 timeline. It features mainly Aethyta, Liara, some of the SR1 crew and many OCs until Shepard's resurrection. It'll include all ME 2 game characters as well. FemShep and Liara pairing.
1. Chapter 1 Thessia

**A/N:** This is the sequel to **"In Love and War"**. It starts from right after the Normandy SR1's destruction and covers the two years while Shepard's gone, her resurrection and ME 2 timeline. It features mainly Aethyta, Liara and some of the SR1 crew until Shepard's resurrection. It'll include all ME 2 game characters and many more OCs. Bioware owns the rights.

**Second Life**

**Chapter One – Thessia**

The Grand Matriarch was having a party later for her 1000th birthday. It'd involve a trip to the temple to thank the Goddess for giving life and for the grace of longevity. Then there would be a simple dinner – simple in the food that would be served, but certainly not small in quantity. The Grand Matriarch had many acolytes, friends and family who wished to witness this monumental moment in her life. Turning a thousand-year old was a significant event in any asari's life, but as a Grand Matriarch, there were traditions to uphold and ceremonies that had been passed down from generation to generation. _A thousand years! Goddess, has it really been that long?_ She stared at the skyline through the large window of her private chambers that were situated on the top floor of the administration building.

The large door opened, an asari matron who was one of the Grand Matriarch's sentinels announced, "Grand Matriarch, your guests are here." The sentinel took a quick step to the side and ushered in two asari matriarchs and shut the door behind them.

"Congratulations, Malayne! May this be a glorious day for you and for all of us who hold you dear in our hearts." Matriarch Jamaya bowed her head slightly, extending a gesture of respect.

"Oh, cut the crap, Jammi!" Matriarch Aethyta gave her companion a dismissive look. "We're all old friends here." She turned to the Grand Matriarch. "Happy birthday, kiddo!" She produced a small gift box, "Not that you need more jewelry, but Jammi and I picked out this for you today. You gotta have something to remember your 1000th by." The truth was the Grand Matriarch's friends knew that she didn't have a bondmate to perform this part of the celebration ritual with her and this was their way of claiming that task later at the temple.

"Jamaya, Aethyta, you're very thoughtful. Please come." Malayne walked gracefully to meet her oldest friends and took each of their hands in her own and led them to her large round sofa. She returned to her elegant glass desk and brought tea on a platter her acolytes had prepared for them earlier and set it down on the table in front of the sofa.

"You both know how much I hate birthday celebrations. They become cumbersome after the first five hundred. I'm grateful that you're both here to help me through this day." She poured tea for her guests. "I wish Benezia were here."

Casting a quick glance at her friends, Malayne knew that they all missed their old friend, Matriarch Benezia, but for different reasons.

Malayne and Benezia had shared the Grand Matriarch title for nearly a century. In many ways, Malayne had more in common with Benezia than Aethyta ever did. They both came from opulent families and they were both bred to be the leaders of their people. But Benezia had something Malayne wished she had. Fire. Perhaps it was because the wars Benezia experienced first hand that forged her intensity; the wars that Malayne somehow stayed away from. Or perhaps it was because Benezia met Aethyta who seemed to lead a double life, one an asari and another one, a krogan.

_I'll bet she set Nezzy's heart on fire_. Malayne always thought.

"How's our kid?" The Grand Matriarch asked, sipping her tea. She adopted Aethyta's way of talking when they conversed, as she found it difficult to be pompous around the half krogan.

Aethyta put down her teacup and sighed heavily. "Seems very lost. I watched her on the Citadel after the Normandy was destroyed, I...I almost walked up to her and gave her a hug." Her voice was a little uneven, so she stopped talking. But Aethyta's mind saw Liara's face clearly.

Jamaya exclaimed, "You didn't tell her, did you? You know what Benezia wished."

"Cool your knickers, Jammi Of course I didn't talk to her. You don't have to tell me what Nezzy wanted, okay? Besides, the kid doesn't know me from a hole in the ground." She cleared her throat. "But the way she acted…it felt like a varren had chewed my heart into pieces. The kid wandered around the Citadel like she had no idea what she was doing. One day she visited this human restaurant and talked with a waiter for an hour, another day she spent all day in an arena where humans roll around on wheeled shoes. She laughed when the humans fought each other in the arena and cried when they rolled around in circles to some crappy slow music. I just don't know what to do with her." Aethyta picked up her tea again trying to sooth her voice.

"You think she was in love with that human Spectre?" Malayne asked carefully.

"From the looks of it, yes. I don't like humans, but that one, that one's got a quad. The way she defended Nezzy to the Council? I'd buy her a drink if she didn't die so damn suddenly. Humans live such a short life as is!" Aethyta snorted.

Malayne had to hold her amusement to herself. She'd always had different views from the half krogan. Benezia used to argue that fighting was never the answer because it'd only lead to more fighting. Building alliances was what both Benezia and Malayne believed in, but Aethyta always wanted to stand up and fight. In a way Malayne admired Aethyta who didn't give an ounce of dark energy what everyone else thought or wanted. The half krogan believed the asari needed to take the lead in doing grander things such as building their own Mass Relays and amassing a fleet of ships that were equal to the Destiny Ascension. While Malayne and Benezia had steered the asari government toward a more diplomatic path in the past, perhaps Aethyta would be more suited to lead in the future if the Reaper threat turned out to be real.

_We'll need someone who can fight and someone who wants to fight._ Malayne was convinced of that.

The Grand Matriarch gave her friends a quick glance and stood up. She took an OSD from her desk and handed it to Aethyta. "Jamaya and I have devised a plan. We're setting up an underground camp on Tuchanka and recruiting everyone we can to prepare. You're half krogan, Thyta. We need you to lead this project."

Aethyta's eyes widened as she looked over the datapad. "So the Reapers are real!"

Jamaya chimed in. "We're not a hundred percent certain. But it's too big of a risk to ignore the possibility. And the Council is doing nothing, so we must step in and do something. I've set the logistics in motion and this will be the largest undertaking we've ever planned." Jamaya was the best administrator anyone had seen in a thousand years. She rarely had original ideas but if you wanted anything done, Jamaya was the one to go to. She ran the asari government like a well-oiled machine. "We sent a team of scientists to Ilos after the Normandy discovered the Prothean stash there. After the attack on the Citadel we must take tangible steps to protect the galaxy, or at the very least the asari worlds."

Video footage on the datapad caught Aethyta's attention. "Is that Liara? Is that Omega? What's she doing on Omega?"

Jamaya shot a quick look at Malayne. She and the Grand Matriarch had discussed this already. It was time to break the news to Aethyta. "Liara was hired by a human extremist group called Cerberus to acquire Commander Shepard's body, but we don't yet know for what purpose."

"What?" Aethyta gave Jamaya a disapproving look and asked accusingly, "She's doing what? And how long have you known about this?"

Malayne stepped in, "Thyta, we've just received the intel and we had to confirm its authenticity before taking any actions."

"What actions have you taken? Why did you send me to Illium if Liara is on Omega? I want to know, I have the right to know!" Aethytha's face started to turn deeper purple.

"Calm yourself, Aethyta." Malayne raised a hand. She was one of the very few people that could say that to Aethyta without fear of getting a head butt. "This is why we're showing you this. Cerberus isn't the only organization involved in this deal. According to our intel, the Shadow Broker wants the very same thing Liara is trying to get for Cerberus. The Shadow Broker has fingers in many pies including the asari ranks, we just don't know how deep. With both sides holding a lot of power in their hands, this is a dangerous deal to make. Jammi is putting a squad of commandos together and you're going to take them to Omega and keep our kid safe." The Grand Matriarch put her raised hand down on Aethyta's knee for an added assurance. "But first you have to pay a visit to Tuchanka."

Aethyta sighed with visible relief, "When do I leave?" Jamaya tapped on the OSD a few times to show her the plan. Aethyta read it carefully and then she watched the footage of Liara on the OSD again.

"What have you gotten yourself into, Liara?"

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: Tuchanka


	2. Chapter 2 Tuchanka

**Second Life**

**Chapter Two – Tuchanka**

Aethyta looked out through a small porthole on her shuttle at the barren landscape of Tuchanka. The bright mid-morning sun was casting a light orange hue on the wasteland and the profile of half ruined spires from the older cities hovered just above the horizon, like an illusion dancing on the edge of her vision. Aethyta felt exhilarated every time she visited her old man's fatherland. As a child, her father had taken her to Tuchanka every year to participate in the annual varren hunt that involved dangerous journeys through the desert and dried up acid seas. If the wild fauna didn't kill you, the terrain and the dry heat often posed a bigger threat for those who didn't know how to conserve water. Aethyta smiled at the memory of her childhood as her hand unconsciously rested on the dry water canister she acquired on the Battlestation that orbited the planet.

So many times Aethyta had dreamed of bringing Liara here to take the same journey she and her krogan father had taken.

_It would have been nice for the kid to learn how to fight danger and to survive extreme conditions._ She thought. That would have been something she and the kid would always have – the experience and the memory, like hers and her father's. But of course it was not possible when Benezia was alive. Benezia would have never allowed her precious Little Wing to spend her vacations on Tuchanka. Nezzy preferred vacation resorts on luscious planets that drove Aethyta insane. She wouldn't have survived a few vacations she and Benezia spent together if it weren't for all the ryncol the resorts supplied.

_What a mess!_ The unrealized dream made Aethyta both sad and pissed. She wished Benezia had told the kid who her father was and that how much she cared for Liara and that she would do anything to protect her child.

The shuttle landed just outside of the encampment that was filled with dusty vehicles and heavy mining equipment. A sentry tower stood on each corner of the large camp. As Aethyta stepped out of her shuttle she realized the camp above the ground was only a disguise for the real structure. The main entrance to the underground compound lied on a platform that provided the roof for the building below, and the heavy retractable door opened to reveal a set of wide stairs leading into the building. An asari commando waited for the Matriarch's arrival near the landing pad.

"Lieutenant Kurin at your service." The asari commando struck a perfect posture in her wrinkleless commando uniform. She raised her hand and pointed at the entrance of the structure with military precision. "Welcome to the Bunker, Matriarch!"

When Aethyta stepped out of the elevator, she thought she was on the Citadel for a moment. The sprawling underground buildings had a remarkable resemblance to some of the administrative buildings on the Citadel with as many corridors that could confuse any newcomer. The asari commando explained to the Matriarch, "We'll hang signs when all the blueprints are built." She ushered Aethyta to one of the generic sleeping quarters that included a bed, a small table and a one-person shower. Aethyta didn't know if she should laugh or snort at the accommodations – she'd never been on Tuchanka and slept in a bed let alone on a mattress with clean sheets.

_And a personal shower? Are we going to fight a war or are we going to keep ourselves looking pretty?_ The commando saw the faint smirk on the Matriarch's face and explained again. "The salarian survey team found underground water and the krogans dug the well. We have more water available than most spaceships and a very efficient water treatment system that recycles every drop. So you're free to take a shower once a day." This time, Aethyta laughed.

Looking at the armor case that had already been brought into her room by the facility staff, Aethyta let out a snort.

_A thousand years old, now they want me to fight! I wish Nezzy were here to see this._ Jamaya had picked out a new set of armor for her that was worthy of a Matriarch working with secret intergalactic forces preparing for an impending war. Aethyta missed her old armor that Benezia had given her as a birthday gift.

_Oh, Nezzy!_

"Lieutenant, how soon can you get your people ready and leave for Omega?" The Matriarch asked. She didn't come to Tuchanka to live a semi-luxury life. She reported to duty as the Grand Matriarch instructed, but now she needed to get to Liara!

"Soon, Matriarch." The asari commando replied. "My commando squad should be back from their survivor training trip any time now."

As if on cue, the Lieutenant's comm beeped and she tapped on her omni-tool. A sentry from the guard tower came in, "Lieutenant Kurin, your squad is here and is requesting entry. They gave the correct password."

"Entry granted." The asari commando leader answered and excused herself, but Aethyta followed her.

"I'd like to tag along if you don't mind." The Matriarch wanted to check out this commando unit if she was to put her trust in their abilities to help her daughter. She never trusted anybody sight unseen.

Lieutenant Kurin walked briskly and stood on the red hard ground between the building entrance and the outer gate, waiting for her squad to arrive in a krogan tank. As the squad filed out from the dusty tank, the Lieutenant parted her legs to solidify her authority. The squad of asari commandos looked worse for wear and their faces were covered with a layer of dust. Their eyes were sunken and their skin was dry; some of them had cracked lips. As they stood in formation waiting for their leader to inspect each member, Aethyta noticed a young asari who looked not much older than Liara. She seemed to have faired worse than her squad mates and looked a little unsteady on her feet. Her face was sunburned and her lips were peeling and blistered.

The young asari's discomfort didn't escape the Lieutenant as she dismissed the others in the squad but kept the young commando alone under the baking sun. "Faryla, what was my number one instruction before the squad left for the survival training trip?"

The young asari opened her mouth to answer her superior, but it seemed to pain her to speak as she tried a few times, but no sound came out.

"What was the first thing I told you?" The commando leader moved closer to the young asari and shouted her question at the dusty face.

The young asari clenched her fists and seemed to use all her strength to whisper "water" through her parched throat. The Lieutenant nodded and softened her voice, "Then I think you've learned your lesson. Dismissed." The Lieutenant turned around and walked into the building with large strides, passing by the Matriarch who'd been standing a few steps back.

When the courtyard was empty except the two asari, the young commando let out a long held breath and swayed on her feet. Aethyta muttered, "For fuck's sake!" She walked quickly to the young asari and took out her dry water bottle and popped the cover open. "Hold this to your mouth." The Matriarch helped the young asari cover the opening of the bottle with her mouth and puffed a gentle steam of dry water. "Now wiggle your tongue in your mouth a few times." She instructed. "Better?"

The young asari smiled but stopped as her lips pulled open again and blood seeped through a few cracked lines. The Matriarch took hold of the young commando's arm and walked her into the building.

Waiting for the young asari taking a quick shower, Aethyta shouted outside bathroom door, "Where're you from, kid?"

"I grew up in Armali and joint the asari military only twenty years ago." The young asari answered. She quickly changed into her casual clothing and exited the shower, not wanting to make the Matriarch wait for her any longer than necessary.

Faryla looked quite different when she wasn't covered with dust. Even with a sunburn, her blue skin looked young and vibrant, untouched by age and unscarred by real battles. She reminded Aethyta so much of Liara with those large and sparkly eyes. "So what happened out there?" The Matriarch asked.

Faryla lowered her head, her white markings on her eye lids joined the rest of the markings on her face and turned the picture into a white lily. "One of my squad mates thought it would give me a bigger challenge in the beginning of the trip when she dumped some of my water supply. We carried them in different canisters, she tossed one out of the tank's window."

Aethyta listened to the young asari. "And did you do anything about it?"

Faryla shook her head, "I couldn't. The tank was moving at a high speed, and they wouldn't stop for me to pick up my canister anyway."

Aethyta followed up quickly. "No, I meant did you do something about the person who picked on you?"

Again, the young asari lowered her head. "She's one of the four Armali Sniper Unit soldiers. She can nail a vorcha's head through a wall at long distance. I look up to Fin 2 and want her to like me, not to hate me."

"Her name's Fin 2?" Aethyta tilted her head.

"That's her call sign. The four Armali snipers call themselves Silent Fins. She's second in seniority. Her name is Da'Alia, or Alia as her friends call her. Our squad leader's call sign is Onyx and she served on one of the Sixth Fleet ships. We're lucky to have her." The young asari sounded animated. "We all come from different branches of the asari military. Lieutenant Kurin said if our squad works out she'd build more. I really hope it works out because it's amazing to work with the squad."

"What's your call sign?" The Matriarch asked.

The girl bit her lip and shook her head. "I don't have one. Every time I came up with one, Fin 2 would make jokes about it and shoot it down."

"What do you do in the squad?"

"I'm an infiltrator and I have some of galaxy's most advanced cloaking devices, weapons mods, hacking software and implants that can do just about anything." The girl started with her animated gestures again.

Aethyta almost laughed at the enthusiasm in the young asari's voice. "So, you're the squad's geek girl." The girl proudly nodded her head. "How about we just call you Geek Girl? If Fin 2 has problem with that, you set her straight!"

"How?"

"You should clock her, that's how!" Aethyta huffed. "It's her job to torment you until your skin is thick enough to stand up for yourself. The sooner you do that the sooner she'll leave you alone."

The young asari didn't seem convinced. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure." The Matriarch said without pause. "I bet this isn't the first time she picked on you either." Seeing confirmation from the young asari, Aethyta positioned herself in front of Faryla. "Here, let me show you what to do." She put a hand on Faryla's shoulder, "You go up to her like this when she picks on you, and you tell her how much you appreciate her help to make you tougher. You keep a smile on your face and when she smiles back, you clock her on the nose like this." Aethyta suddenly brought her fist to Faryla's face with such speed that the young asari didn't even attempt to duck. But the fist stopped right where Aethyta's knuckles touched Faryla's nose ever so lightly. Waiting for the young asari to recover from her shock and nod her understanding, Aethyta lowered her fist and smiled. "Just so you understand, I stopped before I hit you. But when you hit her, you don't stop." Her last instruction made Faryla laugh as the young asari nodded again. "Atta girl!"

"Geek Girl. G.G." The young asari muttered the word to herself and smiled at the sound of her new call sign.

Aethyta smiled broadly. "Here, keep this with you when you go out there on this planet. Tuchanka is fucking beautiful to look at but a shit hole if you ain't got water." She handed the young commando her dry water canister.

Faryla accepted the gift from the Matriarch and gave her a shy smile. Aethyta wasn't like any Matriarch she'd ever met. Even though her choice of words was coarse, her voice expressed bonhomie.

A large and muted explosion shook the building. "What was that?" asked Aethyta, alarmed.

"Don't worry. It's the krogans. They're digging through the lower level to expand the building." The young asari answered quickly. "There are wild animals down there, varrens, fire spiders and goddess knows what else. The krogans toss grenades down until they kill them all."

Another thudding explosion came.

"I'm going to go and have a look." Aethyta couldn't sit around and wait for the commandos to get ready. When she sat still, Liara's saddened face invaded her mind. She needed some action.

Aethyta pushed the crowd aside like a seasoned commando and when she finally reached the center of the problem, she shouted to the krogans to stop what they were doing. The asari Matriarch walked up to the krogan with a scarred face who seemed to be in charge. "Battlemaster, please ask your whelps to stand back. I've got this."

The krogan Battlemaster turned his face and sized up the slender asari, then he nodded to his people to stand back.

Aethyta put herself in a battle stance and closed her eyes as she called up her biotic energy to lift a small mountain of rocks piled on the side of the large hole. The rocks made rattling sounds as they bumped into each other in the ball of dark energy. With a short grunt, Aethyta released the energy ball and watched a pile of rocks land on the creatures below. Satisfied with the crunching sound of bug bodies and varren bones, the asari put a smile on her face and dusted off her hands that hadn't even gotten dirty. "Now you whelps have to re-dig the hole." She sent out laughter and turned to leave.

The krogan Battlemaster gave his people the order to re-dig the hole and then rushed to catch up with the asari Matriarch. "You know the way of krogans."

Aethyta didn't slow her pace. "Father was a krogan. It's in my blood."

"I like you already. The name is Wrex."

The asari Matriarch stopped and stared at the krogan. "Weren't you the krogan who fought with the human Spectre?"

"I fought with Shepard and many others on the Normandy." Wrex wasn't one to lament often, but the mentioning of Shepard and the Normandy shaved the edge off of his voice.

The Matriarch seemed to understand him. "Was it a big crew?" She asked.

"Not really, but a good one. Human soldiers, I drilled their asses to be a tough bunch, it was hard to say goodbye to those whelps." Wrex almost had a smile on his face. "And a bright young quarian kid, that one is going places, I can tell." His voice was more relaxed now. "Even the turian isn't half bad, shrewd. And a young asari, that one has fire in her. She and Shepard were a good pair. " He smiled at the memory of his adventure that seemed to have happened so long ago.

The krogan's hard features turned into soft adoration for his friends, especially at the mention of the young asari. It brought a warm smile to the Matriarch's face. "Wrex, I think we'll get along just find. The name is Aethyta."

Wrex's comm beeped, he tapped on his omni-tool, "Go ahead."

"Wrex, the message you sent yesterday received an encrypted answer." A voice came through the local comm.

"I'll be right there." Wrex picked up his pace and signaled for Aethyta to follow him. "Aethyta, let me show you something."

The large elevator opened to an open floor that had no windows or a hallway. The entire floor was set up to be an information and control center with monitors covering its enormous walls and a large number of workstations with blinking terminals. Only half of the terminals were occupied, but the people working on these terminals were busy talking or tapping on OSDs. The room was bustling with activities and noise.

A salarian saw Wrex coming in, and he walked quickly to meet the krogan. "The message seems legit but it's encrypted. I'm guessing you have the code since it's addressed directly to you."

He took Wrex and the Matriarch to a terminal, but before he tapped the keys to show Wrex the message, the krogan said to Aethyta. "We set up a control center here. It's an information hub mainly; people working here are all volunteers who believed what Shepard had warned us about. We're gathering any information that might help us find out where the Reapers are and who their agents are. We put out different feelers and bait, and wait for responses. The data is streaming down from the Battlestation in orbit. Here's one of the things we uncovered." He hit a few buttons, a recorded voice played through the terminal's speaker.

"This is the Pirate Radio Network, broadcasting on all channels. We're paying high credits for anyone who brings credible information of geth activities, signs of ancient machines called the Reapers and the names of their agents. We're also recruiting anyone who believes in the coming invasion of the ancient machines. We'll train you well and pay you well. We're everywhere, from the heart of the terminus system to the deep space at the fringe of the galaxy. Get in touch with us."

"Who's that? And what's Pirate Radio Network?" Aethyta was more than intrigued.

"I know that voice. We used to compete for the toughest jobs as mercenaries. When I heard this recording, I sent out a message. It looks like I'm getting an answer." Wrex punched a few keys, and a holo image came to life.

"Old friend, I knew you'd hear PRN sooner or later and ask me the question. I created the Pirate Radio Network because Commander Shepard asked me to. She sent me a message after you took down Sovereign but she didn't get the support from the Council she wanted. She asked me to monitor any geth and Reaper activities in the Terminus and far end of the galaxy when I'm on a job. I believe what she said about the Reapers, Wrex. I know you wouldn't have followed her if you didn't. So I'm doing something better, I'm organizing a network of mercs and gathering any information I can. I'm sorry to hear that Commander Shepard was lost when the Normandy was attacked, but I know you won't go down without a fight. So I will forward anything interesting to you. And I hope that we'll still have the opportunity to finish our little game to determine who's the best. So get in touch when you have an idea. Aleena out!"

Aleena's image flickered off as Wrex's booming laughter covered the white noise of the room. "Yes, we'll have that opportunity!" He muttered to himself.

Aethyta watched the message and Wrex's reaction with amusement. It dawned on her that the reason the Grand Matriarch picked her to lead this project wasn't entirely based on her experience during the wars, she also spoke mercenary's language and in many ways she missed the actions and freedom of being a merc. But a more important realization outweighed the first one. Aethyta was impressed by Shepard, who it seemed even in death, could inspire people to take up her cause and act on her behalf. Even in death, she was a beacon that flashed hope in the dark space.

_Is this why Liara couldn't let her go? But why is she chasing down a corpse? _Aethyta wondered. It couldn't be just for burial if both Cerberus and the Shadow Broker wanted it too. The more Aethyta thought about the dubious organizations involved in this deal the more nervous she got.

_I must get to Liara and I must get to her fast!_

* * *

**A/N:** I know it's only a glimpse of what's building here, but let me know if it's too out there. Next up: Omega


	3. Chapter 3 Omega

**Second Life **

**Chapter Three – Omega**

As the shuttle sped to orbit to take the Matriarch and her squad of commandos to the Battlestation, Aethyta cast a final glance at the deep orange planet then she turned her attention to the asari tightly packed in the small craft. Everyone seemed a little nervous. Aethyta tried to break the ice. "So what are your girls' favorite drinks?"

A few commandos almost had smiles on their faces, but the squad leader's answer wiped them away. "We don't."

_You don't drink or you don't know?_ Aethyta stopped herself before asking the question. Instead, she asked, "Where are you all from?"

"Thessia." The leader answered for everybody again, no cities or towns were offered, as if speaking gave her indigestion.

Of all the asari commandos, she had to get a stickler! Aethyta stared at Onyx remembering she was handpicked from the Asari Six Fleet whose reputation is being serious, sober and humorless. That didn't begin to describe Onyx. Aethyta looked away again at the porthole watching the fast approaching Battlestation in Tuchanka's orbit. She could almost see the frigate ship, the Blue Sabre, docked on the station waiting to take them to Omega. The Matriarch sighed. She could have been on Omega and found Liara by now if this had gone the way she wanted. She had Eclipse girls on Omega who owed her favors, but she knew using mercenaries on an asari official mission would have irritated both Malayne and Jamaya, and she needed to be on good terms with the Grand Matriarch and her right hand woman in these troubled times.

One of the commandos asked her stickler leader: "Onyx, why are we training on Tuchanka when our next mission is on Omega?"

The commando leader answered simply, "To prepare for war." Her face looked irritated as if she had missed the morning meal. She wasn't irritated by the question from her squad, but at this mission. _I didn't come all the way here to train with Lt. Kurin to babysit some dead Matriarch's daughter!_ Onyx had known Lieutenant Kurin for a long time. They had served together and she'd take any job offer Kurin had. Somehow the assignment of building a force on Tuchanka for the possible Reaper invasion smelled destiny, and after centuries service in the Six Fleet, she knew she was destined to fight in the toughest battles the galaxy had ever seen. Her face gave another uneasy expression at the thought of babysitting a Matriarch's daughter, no doubted a spoiled brat. What a waste of her squad's talent!

"And how do we know the machines will attack desert planets?" Her squad mate wasn't buying the answer. "And even if that's the case, why Tuchanka? It's a wasteland anyway. What's the point to attack it?"

The last couple of days working with the asari commandos had made Aethyta realize what the Grand Matriarch truly wanted from her. The asari weren't ready for the upcoming war, not by a long shot. These young ones had spent their entire lives in peace and they were actually the tough ones. She would need to teach them that a planet like Tuchanka was a proving ground, a place where they had to fight to survive or they would fall in the harshness of war. She would need to make them understand that they shouldn't look at Tuchanka as just another mission, but as a chisel that could sharpen their skills, their minds and their wills. And _that_ was a job for an asari Matriarch who had actually been through wars first hand, unlike Malayne or Jamaya who had been safely tucked away during the wartime.

"Matriarch, do we know who Cerberus is?" asked Faryla, who'd been invited by Aethyta to sit next to her, as if to make up for their leader's terseness.

Aethyta had reviewed the intel, but the intel on this human organization was scattered, unorganized and unanalyzed. There was no big picture to reveal the size of the organization or who was in charge. Perhaps the asari hadn't bought everything that was available from information brokers, or perhaps that was how the organization ran, scattered and disconnected from each other, secrecy practiced to the max. In her millennia's existence in this perilous galaxy, Aethyta learned if an organization tried to hide in the shadows it had something to hide.

"Not much more than what I already gave you on your datapads." The Matriarch shook her head. "It used to be just dealing with Aria when you went to Omega. Those were simpler times."

"Aria, huh!" The asari squad leader snorted, then she quickly turned away regretting the emotional outburst.

Aethyta was amused by the reaction from the deadpan asari, but then again she thought, why should she? They didn't know Aria the way she did. Yes, she had a history with Aria but she sure didn't intend to discuss that with a stranger, or even with a friend for that matter. The only other person who knew about her and Aria was Benezia and the secret died with her. As dark and ruthless as Aria's reputation had grown, Aethyta knew she was harmless. She was harmless to the asari government or the Council. Aria was a pirate at heart and her one and only ambition had always been Omega. As long as she had what she wanted, Aria had free rein to play royalty on her old mining rock. Even Matriarch Benezia said once, "Thank the goddess for Omega so we don't have the dross to deal with on Thessia!" So what if Aria spilled some mercenaries' blood who fucked with her? Aethyta didn't give a damn about the vorchas.

The experienced travelers or frequent dealers knew that you could rent locker rooms by the docks on Omega. And if you paid top credits you could even get into the wing that didn't have security cameras. As the squad changed into their combat gear and readied their field packs in the locker room, Aethyta walked out to the hallway and raised Aria on her omni holo.

"Aria, I'm on your turf and I've got a squad of commandos with me." Aethyta said matter-of-factly.

"Matriarch Aethyta! Don't even want to grace us with your presence in person, huh? And commandos? When did you become a lapdog for that stuffy Matriarch bullshit government? You used to have spunk." Aria was in her usual mood.

Aethyta huffed and raised her voice a notch, "I'm no one's lapdog. I'm sure you know why I'm here."

"Oh, yes. I do." Aria said coolly.

"And you'll let this go down without lending a hand?"

"There's no profit in it for me. Why should I?" Aria kept her face expressionless, but she knew she couldn't fool her old friend.

"You should be happy that I'm not there in person, Aria! Or you'd enjoy a nice bloody head butt like the last time we saw each other." Aethyta pointed a finger at Aria's small holo.

"Oh, fine. Here's the location where the deal will go down." Aria gave a nod to someone behind her. And Aethyta saw the data coming in on her omni-tool.

"Thanks, Aria. Put that on my tab, would you?"

Aria smirked, "Yeah, right. Your tab is so long it can wrap around Omega. But I guess saving my life is worth more than that." Before she hit the call end button, Aria gave the Matriarch a warning. "Thyta, be careful. Cerberus isn't the only one in this deal. There is also…the Shadow Broker." She ended the call as soon as she finished the sentence and she silently thanked the goddess that Aethyta was indeed not in the room with her.

The location Aria gave Aethyta took them to the lower parts of Omega. The deal was going to go down in a long alley with abandoned crates from the old mining days. Onyx searched the maps with Faryla and settled on two adjacent rooms in the building along the alleyway that had a full view of the spot. With the infiltrator leading the team, the squad moved into the building. The housing project built for the hired hands working in the mines had long been deserted. The building is filled with detritus, old metal bedframes rusting away and cracked photo frames dangling on dirty walls.

As soon as the commandos filed into the rooms, Onyx whispered to Aethyta. "We're being followed."

Aethyta nodded, "I know. I saw their cloaking flickered not long after we left the docks." The Matriarch didn't sound worried. "Keep the door open and let them in."

The squad leader nodded and gave her squad a hand signal to get ready for intruders. A few moments later, Onyx gave Faryla a nod. The young asari tapped on her omni-tool, and the sound of cloaking controls whined and two figures appeared in the room, exposed. The commandos immediately pointed their guns at the intruders.

"Liselle, what are you doing here?" Aethyta recognized the asari immediately. She had half expected Aria would stick her fingers in this, but sending Liselle was unexpected.

The young asari mercenary said nothing, but she lowered her gun. Aethyta gave a nod to her commandos to lower their weapons. The only person still holding his weapon in the room was the batarian who came in with Liselle.

"Any deal that goes down on Omega, Aria gets a piece." Liselle said simply in her soft voice.

"We don't know if this is going down on Omega. I doubt that Cerberus has Aria's bank account number to wire their money." Aethyta spoke unhurriedly, only spared a very brief glance at the gun the batarian was pointing at her. _Keep that up blinking boy!_ She looked straight at Liselle waiting for an answer.

"Aria isn't interested in credits. She wants information." Liselle said softly. She knew who this Matriarch was, her mother had told her, and she even remembered vaguely about Aethyta when she was only but a baby. She didn't want to hide Aria's intentions, not to someone who had such a history with her mother, and because there was no pointing hiding it. That was what Aria wanted and Aria was never shy about saying what she wanted. Her daughter learned it from the best.

Aethyta looked at her own people and said simply, "Restrain her." Four commandos each put an energy field around Liselle's extremities and effectively pinned her to the wall, but not hurting her. Aethyta walked closer and lightly patted Liselle's face. "You sure have grown up. A shame your mother didn't follow my advice. She should have gotten you out of this dump. You're still pretty though."

Seeing the asari commandos trapping his boss's daughter, the batarian straightened his pistol with a renewed determination. "Let her go!"

Aethyta turned around, "Or what? You're going to shoot? Then shoot."

The batarian didn't seem to understand the meaning of the Matriarch's words. He flicked a gaze at Liselle from the sight of his gun, hoping she'd give him some sort of signal. But before anybody had time to react, Aethyta pushed her head into the pistol the batarian was holding, "Hey, Four-Eyes, I haven't hit anybody or head butted someone for over a week and that's a new record for me. It makes my knuckles itch and my head heavy. If you want to scratch my itch and lighten my head, then you give me your best shot."

Aethyta's threat sounded more like an invitation, and it confused the batarian even further. He first blinked his upper two eyes, but before he could blink the bottom two, Aethyta launched her strikes. Her first punch went for the batarian's gut, as he bent over from the pain, his head lowered to the perfect height for Aethyta. With a large smile on her face, Aethyta lunged her body forward and connected her forehead solidly with the batarian's face.

First came the sound of cracking when a thick skull crashed into small bones, then came a long and deep wailing from the batarian whose face was covered in blood that was dripping from his nose and mouth. He dropped his gun on the floor and held his face with both hands, crying in a nasal voice. "You broken my nose and my teeth!" He stopped and spitted out two sharp teeth.

Aethyta's big smile vanished. She grabbed the batarian's collar and enjoyed watching his face squirm. "I gave you a fair warning. It was a fair head butt." She waited for the batarian to nod his head in an agreement, then her voice turned cold. "And tell your boss I'm in no mood to babysit her lapdogs. If she wants something, she should come to me directly. You got that?" The batarian couldn't nod his head fast enough.

The Matriarch let him go. She walked back to Liselle, and seeing a slight sense of fear in the asari's eyes, the Matriarch signaled the commandos to let her go. "Tell your mother I said hi." Aethyta gave the young asari's shoulder a squeeze, and pointed her head to the door. She wouldn't hurt Liselle, not with the history she had with Aria and certainly not when her own kid was trudging on Aria's turf doing whatever the hell she was doing. She couldn't afford to make Aria her enemy and she wouldn't even if she could.

"Movement!" Onyx warned. Everyone took their positions without further command.

Aethyta's eyes went wide at the sight of Liara. The sad and aimless Liara she saw on the Citadel had turned into a completely different person. Her movement determined and her expression unreadable, at least through the scope of the most advanced sniper rifle the asari commandos could acquire. "I need audio." The Matriarch ordered eagerly. Faryla punched a few buttons on her tool kit, a small disc shaped mic popped up from the kit and with a few more taps, the disc cloaked. Faryla waited for the Matriarch's signal, and then sent the small disc flying.

In the middle of a skyway, Liara stood straight shouldered in a medium armor with sharp bladed shoulder protectors and knee plates. Standing next to her, a drell with a long coat that looked oversized on him hiding unseen panoplies. His posture is equally impressive, but the drell seemed to listen to Liara's orders and watch her back. A group approached the pair without even giving the impression of an ambush. Blue Suns. They were greater in numbers and well armed and armored. A heat discussion ensured. "I want Shepard's stasis pod and you are going to give it to me if you want to keep your miserable lives." Liara threatened. Through the scope, Aethyta could see the drell reach inside of his jacket, but before he pulled a pistol out, a turian grabbed him as his gun shot out a bullet that went wide. Turning, she saw Liara in the firm grasp of two Blue Suns and a krogan was standing in front of her making his own threats.

Aethyta whispered, "Get ready." With a wave of her hand, four snipers hit their marks at the same time, freeing both Liara and the drell. More sniper bullets rained on the Blue Suns to stop them from pursuing and when the echoes of gunfire stopped, Aethyta flapped her hand quickly to chase away the heat that came out of the high powered snipe rifles and looked straight at the youngest asari commando.

The young asari smiled, "The bug is on Liara's armor. We can track her now." Aethyta smiled back and patted the young asari's face roughly to express her satisfaction for her work.

"Now let's see where she goes next."

* * *

A/N: Next up: Commandos and Matriarchs


	4. Chapter 4 Commandos and Matriarchs

**Second Life**

**Chapter Four – Commandos and Matriarchs**

Aethyta followed Liara and Feron through the large door to Afterlife. The bouncer was too distracted to notice Aethyta under her cloak. Even though she followed the pair fairly closely to listen to their conversation and watch their interactions, neither of them had noticed her hidden presence. Faryla had assured her the cloaking device she installed on the Matriarch was one of the best in the galaxy. Only the best thieves and spies had access to this model. Aethyta was quite impressed that none of Aria's watchdogs sensed her as she hid behind one of them watching the meeting.

The interactions between Liara and Feron puzzled Aethyta. From their conversation, she learned that Liara had hired the drell to get Shepard's body, yet the drell seemed to be in charge of their plans and took the lead to talk to Aria. When Liara told Aria that it was the Collectors who intended to take the body away from her, Aria ended the meeting immediately and gave Liara the location of the exchange. Aria seldom got rattled like this, and Aethyta wanted to find out why. Instead of following Liara, she decided to let the commandos track her via the bug on Liara's armor and she remained after the meeting.

Aria whispered something to a batarian and then turned to face the hidden figure. "You can come out now."

Aethyta uncloaked and startled Aria's guards. They quickly recovered and pointed their guns at her. Aria waved her hand and cleared the room. "I see you've learned a few new tricks. When did you start sneaking around like a thief?" She poured and offered a drink.

Aethyta didn't take the bait. She knew what ryncol did to her and so did Aria. This was not the time to reminisce about their old sexual collisions or rekindle the fire that fueled their mutual desire to control one another—as if either could ever succeed. Their old flings were dangerous games. "Tell me everything you know about the Collectors." Aethyta stood her ground.

"And since when do you turn down your favorite drink?" Aria sounded disappointed. She threw her head back and downed the drink herself and thinned her eyes. "They're bad news, Thyta. Like the geth, when they come out of the Veil, you know big troubles are coming. The Collectors are worse. I had a little run in with them on Omega. Can you believe it? On Omega!" She huffed. "Something bad is coming, I can feel it. Their presence here is a sign." She didn't share the details she'd recovered from the datapad in her run in with the Collectors that contained the population data on human colonies.

Aethyta could see the trembling Aria was trying to hide. It reminded her of when they were very young: Aria's life was in danger and she asked Aethyta for help; she had the same fear in her eyes then.

"You have to help them. Don't let the body end up in the Collectors' hands." Aria collected herself and turned to face the dance floor.

Aethyta walked up the stairs and stood next to Aria. She followed Aria's gaze and saw Liselle dancing on the floor – she looked happy and free. "She's all grown up. What does she do for you?"

Aria didn't look at her old friend. "This and that. But mostly she loves to drink and dance every night." A faint smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

Aethyta didn't hide her disapproval. "Benezia used to say you drink when you're young to practice for the heartaches later in your life that required drinking. You should get her out of Omega, Aria."

"And you should get Liara out too." Aria bit back.

Aethyta sighed.

* * *

The asari commandos found a building in the neutral territory to spend the night on Omega where the major gangs didn't have regular foot patrols. Their marks had found their own lodging to prepare for tomorrow's body exchange.

The team was settling onto their small sleeping pads, and Faryla stood up and asked for permission. "Onyx, may I have a moment?"

Onyx quickly finished her pistol cleaning and stood up. "Yes."

"I've decided on my call sign. Geek Girl, or G. G. for short." Said the young asari, not hiding the pride in her voice.

Before Onyx replied, Fin 2 spoke behind their squad leader. "That's nice, but not as nice as B. B., Big Baby!" All four Silent Fins laughed. Onyx looked at Faryla, waiting for her next move. Surprisingly the young commando didn't change her mind like the last couple of times when she gave in to Fin 2's razz.

Listening to the sound of laughter, Faryla took a moment to make her decision. Then she walked pass her commanding officer and stood in front of Fin 2. She smiled at the sniper. "I want to thank you for thinking of a call sign for me." She extended her hand.

Fin 2 was uncertain what Faryla's intentions were but she decided to humor the young asari and let Faryla pull her up. She watched Faryla put a hand on her shoulder and turn her body half away. Without a warning, a flying fist connected with her nose, sending her tumbling backwards. Fin 2 bent down silently covering her face with a hand, blood dripping through her fingers. The other three Fins stood up in unison and two of them held Fin 2's arms while the third called the medic. "Gauze, get over here! Fin 2 is bleeding!"

The medic heard her call sign. She jumped up and ran over with her field pack in hand.

The Matriarch had been watching the event unfold. She silently congratulated the young asari for following every step as instructed. Aethyta felt a bit proud of her young student. She watched the medic sit Fin 2 on a gearbox and wipe away the blood while administering medicine expertly. The Matriarch walked over and bent down to see Fin 2's nose. It looked bloody but not damaged. So she turned to the medic, "Your call sign is Gauze?"

One of the Fins muttered under her breath. "Oh, no. You did not just ask her that."

Before the Fin had finished her warning, the medic started. "Before there was Medi-gel, there was Medi-gauze. It was used everywhere, from battlefield to local clinics…"

The Matriarch's jaw dropped as the medic dispensed her knowledge of the trade with the speed of a portside canon, all the while treating her injured comrade with practiced ease. Aethyta cut her off by putting a hand on her shoulder, "Well, Gauze, can I have some of your Medi-gauze?"

The medic stopped her bombardment of age-old knowledge, and handed the Matriarch a small Medi-gel pack with a smile. The Matriarch walked back to where Faryla stood and took the young asari's hand that had dished out the punch and squeezed some gel onto her knuckles. "It was a very good strike. I'm proud of you."

Faryla was more nervous than proud. The adrenaline she had mustered up to stand up to her teammate was gone; she peered over the Matriarch's shoulder to see if Fin 2 was all right. "I hope I didn't cause a permanent damage or too much pain." She whispered.

The Matriarch smiled. "You did just right. Later on when everyone is calmed down, you go and talk to her. You explain to her that you had to stand up for yourself in front of your teammates. If she's a good soldier she'll congratulate you."

Faryla didn't seem quite convinced, but she had no choice but to follow the Matriarch's advice. She nodded and let the Matriarch treat her burning knuckles.

Onyx rarely expressed her feelings under the watchful eyes of her squad, but as she settled back in the dark corner she had picked as her sleeping spot, she smiled. She had put Fin 2 and Faryla together on the same shift for the overnight watch and then she fell asleep quickly.

Faryla hardly slept during the night. Between the uncomfortable hard floor and her worrying about Fin 2, she stayed up until the first watch called in from the roof for her and Fin 2 to take over. She walked over to Fin 2 and shook her arm, whispering, "It's our watch."

Fin 2 got up silently and took her long sniper rifle. The two commandos settled next to each other on their stomachs. Fin 2 set up her rifle and turned her wide-angle lens to detect body heat while Faryla used the temporary screw to set up a scope stand.

"Why do you have to screw the stand down?" Fin 2 asked.

"The stand has a built-in chip that analyzes everything the scope sees and calculates not only the speed of the wind, air density and particular composition, but also armor rating, armor type and provides suggestions to counter the armor shields. It's faster and more accurate when it's anchored."

"That's why your readings are more accurate than the best spotter's in our Armali unit." Fin 2 didn't move her eyes away from her sniper scope, but she could sense Faryla's response to her compliment. "Hey, G.G., who taught you to punch like that?" Fin 2 asked with a straight face.

G.G. put her scope on the stand and turned it to long range motion detection. She looked through the scope that was monitoring the streets and answered Fin 2. "The Matriarch."

This time it was Fin 2 who took her eyes off the scope and stared at her teammate. A grin appeared on G.G.'s face. Fin 2 put her eyes back on the scope, but she couldn't help but giggle.

G.G. took her eyes off the scope that was capturing the empty streets and turned to Fin 2. "Does it still hurt?" Fin 2 didn't answer or look away from her scope. G.G. bit her lip and turned to her scope again.

Fin 2 smirked and bumped her forearm on G.G.'s shoulder, "That was a nice hit."

* * *

Before the squad set out in the morning to follow their marks, Onyx tapped on Aethyta's shoulder and whispered. "Matriarch, a messenger is requesting your presence on the roof. Her shuttle just landed."

Aethyta nodded to the two commandos on the last overnight watch, and they pointed at an asari standing next to a shuttle that hadn't cut its thrusters. Aethyta walked quickly to the asari, "Shiala! What are you doing here?"

The former acolyte of Matriarch Benazia bowed her head, but Aethyta wrapped her arms around the matron. Shiala hugged the Matriarch tightly. "It's good to see you again, Matriarch." She let go of Aethyta and tried to blink away the tears that threatened to come. Shiala hadn't seen Aethyta since Benezia severed their relationship.

After Shepard's meeting with the Council to exonerate Matriarch Benezia, Shiala was asked by Councilor Tevos to organize the Matriarch's records, writings and video footage for the Citadel Archives. When the Battle of Citadel was over, she visited Commander Shepard at the hospital. With the completion of her work at the Citadel she went back to Feros as she'd originally planned to help the colonists. But after the destruction of the Normandy, Thessia called upon her again, as Matriarch Jamaya put it, "We need to build a squad of messengers. We can't trust sending information over the extranet or any form of communication that our enemies can hack into. With the Tuchanka project, we only trust asari messengers who can carry serial memories and deliver them in person." She had tasked Shiala to recruit her sisters and half sisters who had the same abilities to form the messenger squad.

Shiala waited for the Matriarch to sit in the seat on the shuttle. Aethyta reached out to Shiala's hands, "What message do you have for me?"

Shaila accepted the Matriarch's hands, "Embrace Eternity."

The Grand Matriarch's silhouette appeared in the image. "Aethyta, I know you're in the thick of things right now on Omega. But I need you to come to an important meeting on Thessia. It's as crucial as the mission you're on. Lt. Kurin assures me the commandos are more than capable of handling it while you're away. Come and make haste. "

Aethyta wasn't happy to be pulled out of Omega now, but she had to do what Malayne asked. She asked Shiala to wait for her while she talked with Onyx.

* * *

As the mission went on, Onyx started to realize this wasn't a simple babysitting job as she had anticipated back on Tuchanka. The young asari T'Soni seemed to be onto something, something big. Not only had the order to protect her come directly from the Grand Matriarch, but she'd sent a very capable Matriarch to see that it was done personally. And she had definitely heard of Shepard's name and her reputation. Hell, she was on a Six Fleet ship when Sovereign launched its attacks, and if it weren't for Shepard, goddess knows how many of her fellow soldiers would have died. Now she understood why Lieutenant Kurin picked her for this mission.

In a giant warehouse that looked taller than a two-story building, Onyx positioned her squad in strategic spots. With the Matriarch gone back to Thessia, she wanted to make sure the mission went without a hitch. Aria had provided Aethyta with an edge when she shared the location of the body exchange. The warehouse had a secret entrance accessible via the rooftop through a drop down ladder. Stacks of crates hid the entrance and since nobody had used it in years, it was not so much a secret entrance but a forgotten one.

Onyx positioned G.G. on a platform at the lower set of stairs and her snipers on a higher platform for the most optimal view. She and her other fighters spread out on the catwalk to cover different angles. G.G. had a perfect view of the entire warehouse. She counted at least a dozen Blue Suns guarding key areas of the building and she spotted their marks, Liara and Feron doing their own surveillance on a lower platform near an old turret gun.

G.G. tuned the audio transmitter on Liara's armor to stream audio to Onyx and she asked through her comm. "How come these guys don't patrol up here?"

Onyx replied, "This is Blue Suns territory. Normally they only have to worry about rival gangs, and they know other gangs aren't interested in this deal. It's not in their habit to check for asari commandos. But keep your eyes open."

A large salarian with an M-100 Grenade Launcher walked in accompanied by a krogan who seemed to be in charge of the deal for the Blue Suns. The krogan waved his hand and a turian driving a small forklift with a stasis pod came out from behind several stacks of crates. Liara and Feron made their move. As Liara snuck downstairs, Feron fired the old turret gun that didn't manage to hit anybody but made a large explosion behind the Blue Suns.

As Liara and Feron traded fire and biotic throws with the mercenaries, G.G. read the targets to her snipers. The Fins effectively took out their targets. In the noisy chaos, most Blue Suns didn't notice the unknown snipers were picking off their colleagues, but the large salarian looked up at the Fins' positions. G.G. saw the large M-100 aiming at her snipers and she sounded a warning. "All Fins move out immediately. A grenade launch is in progress."

Fin 1 and Fin 2 quickly folded their sniper rifles and rolled their bodies to the left, while Fin 3 and Fin 4 did the same to the opposite direction. The grenade hit the catwalk and cut it in half. All four Fins got out of the way in time, but G.G. wasn't so lucky. A large piece of the catwalk fell near the platform she was lying on and the jolt from the heavy metal landing on the platform sent her body flying. Her head hit a structural beam and then her body was falling toward the floor since there was no longer a catwalk below her.

Fin 2 watched the event in horror, but she recovered quickly and she wrapped G.G. in a containment field and pulled her back on the higher platform. Blood covered half of G.G.'s face from the large gash on her head, and Fin 2 put her hand on it to stem the bleeding.

Below them, the salarian launched a few more powerful grenades around the room and in the mist of explosions and smoke, he made off with the stasis pod. When the smoke cleared, Onyx was glad to see both Liara and Feron get up on their feet and that her team had picked off all of their targets. A dozen Blue Suns lay dead.

Onyx gave her orders, "Fin 1, take over surveillance and don't loose them! Fin 2, take G.G. to the shuttle, Gauze has her field triage set up there."

Fin 2 used her biotics to carry G.G. to the shuttle parked on the roof. Gauze opened the shuttle door and helped her take the young asari into the shuttle. The bleeding hasn't stopped. Gauze instructed, "Sit her up on the floor, hold her still."

Fin 2 knelt down and put her arm around G.G. to support her. Gauze started to clean the blood around the wound and applied medicine. "I'm going to hydrate her and bring her around. Hold her hands, don't let her touch the wound." Gauze instructed.

G.G. slowly opened her eyes and when the fog cleared, she struggled to get up. "My scope!"

Fin 2 held her firmly. "It's okay, G.G., Fin 1 is taking care of it."

G.G. didn't stop her struggle. "I've got…I've got to go and watch your backs!" But her struggle was ineffective against Fin 2's strong hold. She stopped and watched Gauze put an IV drip in her arm. She looked up at Fin 2 and tried to fight the dizziness from her head wound. "You're not going back to the fight?" She asked weakly.

Looking at G.G.'s sparkly eyes, Fin 2 replied. "They've got it handled. Don't worry about it. You just rest your pretty little face, okay?" She smiled at the young asari as G.G. rested her head on her shoulder.

* * *

The matron sentinel showed Aethyta in, "Grand Matriarch, Matriarch Aethyta is here."

The Grand Matriarch stood by her desk facing the door, her slender figure outlined in light against the setting sun. She beckoned Aethyta over, "Sorry I had to pull you out of your current mission, Aethyta. This meeting couldn't wait."

"Whom are we meeting with? And why do you need me when you have Jamaya?"

The Grand Matriarch didn't move. "We're meeting with Matriarch Inadia and Matriarch Funil. I couldn't have Jamaya here because she effectively controls our government finances and I don't want it appear that she's partial to our cause. It's very important that we get these Matriarchs' blessing for the Tuchanka project as they hold both financial and political influence that we can't afford to ignore."

"Matriarch North and Matriarch South." Aethyta sighed, that was what Benezia called them when she was still alive. The two Matriarchs each controlled a large province, and together they controlled almost half of Thessia. Aethyta only met them a few times and she only knew what Benezia had told her about their reputations. Inadia, "Matriarch North", was a skinny and bitter asari, as Aethyta remembered, who controlled her large province with stricter rules than the rest of asari society. The wildly profitable biotic amp industry and spaceship manufacturing plants had made the Matriarch not only one of the richest asari alive but popular among ambitious young asari who wanted to grab as many credits as they could before settling down and starting a family.

Funil, "Matriarch South", struck Aethyta as a "live for the moment" kind of person and Aethyta actually liked her better than the North. The Matriarch was never without her parade of consorts hanging on her arms or gourmet caterers. Aethyta wondered how she remained slim the way she ate. The beautiful sea on the southern coast provided the best location for vacationing and the Funil family's resorts dotted the entire southern coast of the main continent. As rich and powerful Funil was she had never paid much attention to politics. She repeatedly turned down Benezia and Malayne's offer to join forces in governing and helping the asari's advancement as species, and seemed to be happy to just eat and fuck her days away.

Aethyta let out another sigh.

The door opened again, the matron sentinel appeared with two more following her. Malayne straightened her shoulders as if she was fortifying herself for a tough battle. "Welcome, honored Matriarchs." She spoke first with a bow.

The two matriarchs walked closer and returned their bows. "Grand Matriarch." And they looked at Aethyta who didn't offer any form of greeting, only a nod. Matriarch South nodded back, "Matriarch Aethyta." Matriarch North said nothing.

Malayne invited them to sit on her large round sofa, and she and Aethyta sat on the opposite end of the coffee table from the other two Matriarchs. Matriarch South smiled while waiting for her companion to speak first. Matriarch North started with her raspy voice, "I don't believe that the Reapers really exist."

While Matriarch South was in her bright sexy purple dress, Matriarch North was in an all black outfit. The fabric wrapped tightly around her skinny body and her coif held her head so tightly that it looked like a claw grasping mercilessly onto its prey. "We only had the human's words to go on." The darkly dressed asari continued her slow speech. "And from what I hear, she isn't available for further questioning."

Malayne gave Aethyta a quick glance, then turned to the other Matriarchs. "We also have the Normandy's holo recordings which are now in the Citadel Archives, and Sovereign's attack on the Citadel." The Grand Matriarch was quite aware that both of her peers knew about the information she just shared, but she needed a lead in for what she was about to share next. "We also extracted an enormous amount of Prothean data from Ilos, information that corresponds to the secret we hold dear in our temple of Athame."

For the first time since they came in, both visiting Matriarchs' faces changed. North's eyes widened and that made her face look even skinnier, and the South's perpetual smile went away. "We can never let that secret out!" Matriarch North demanded, and her southern friend only nodded a few times in an agreement.

Malayne almost smiled. They had walked into her trap. "That's why we're setting up a base on Tuchanka to organize the information and prepare a force just in case the myth turns out to be reality." She scanned the faces of the Matriarchs across the table. "If it turns out to be a myth, we can use Tuchanka as cover, driving eyes and ears away from Thessia, away from our temple."

Seeing the two Matriarchs relax their features, the Grand Matriarch went on full assault. "I've asked Matriarch Aethyta to lead the project as she knows more about krogan culture and their way of fighting."

Aethyta could see the faint snarly smile on South's face, no doubt she was thinking the word "Savages". Aethyta bit her lips to calm her temper. North seemed more relaxed after considering the Grand Matriarch's proposal. She let herself lean back a little and turned her gaze on Aethyta. "You're older than us, Matriarch. You sure you want this assignment? Even if all is fabrication, there're still a lot of people to deal with and worlds of information to manage."

The sentiment expressed by the Matriarch didn't surprise Aethyta. She'd seen many older asari, those well past a thousand years old, pull back from life, breathing yet expecting death to crash in at any time. It was as if they're preparing, yet they're afraid to meet death unexpectedly. Perhaps it's smart to prepare, letting death sneak up on you doesn't seem like a good idea. But can anyone truly prepare for their own death? Aethyta snorted at the idea. _I'm not smart, I'm never smart, not like Nezzy. She even chose how she died, beating death to the punch!_ She smiled proudly. She'd decided that she would not pull back from life no matter what she faced. She would charge at it with all she's got. The last stage of her life would not be one of retreat!

With a smile rarely seen by the Matriarch Directions, Aethyta said firmly. "If Benezia were here, she'd lead the charge. Since she isn't here and nobody else has picked up the flag, I'm the fool who you want to be at the front of our fleet." She stopped, accepting Malayne's approving glance.

Matriarch North took the pause as an invitation to voice her opinion. "If indeed there will be a war. But we'll support the Grand Matriarch's proposal and the project should expect our funding transferred shortly."

As both sides of the table released their collective sighs, Matriarch South spoke for the first time. "There's also the sensitive matter of Benezia's daughter."

That brought sharp glances from both Aethyta and Malayne, but Malayne's quick glance told Aethyta to settle down. They knew that besides a few of Benezia's close friends, Liara T'Soni's full parentage was completely unknown to most people. And Benezia's friends had all sworn to never let that secret out in the open; they would guard it as hard as they would with the secret that laid within the Athame temple.

Matriarch South continued, "I hear that she's now either working as an information broker for the Shadow Broker or as an informant for the human terrorist group called Cerberus."

Matriarch North added, "Or both."

"Where did you hear that from?" Aethyta decided she no longer liked Matriarch South. "And why are you interested in Liara T'Soni?"

Matriarch South turned to Aethyta and had now just realized that Aethyta had a history with Liara's mother. She struggled with her thoughts and finally found the words. "Before Matriarch Benezia died, Liara T'Soni was nowhere to be found. Then she joined the most advanced human ship and after the Battle of the Citadel she vanished again. That raised suspicion among many asari. And now the rumor has it that she's working with the most secretive groups in the galaxy. We need to put eyes and ears on her, so that we don't have another 'Benezia' situation on our hands."

This time, the Grand Matriarch was the one who couldn't stop her fury. "Grand Matriarch Benezia gave her life fighting out enemies. She's to be remembered as a hero of our generation and a leader in our history!" She pounded her hand on the table.

The Grand Matriarch's outburst had made both Matriarch North and South uncomfortable to say at the least. Matriarch South shut her mouth and looked down at the tea set that was still untouched, and Matriarch North frowned so vigorously that her coif seemed even tighter.

In a role reversal, Matriarch Aethyta stepped in calmly. "If the Grand Matriarch thinks it's necessary to keep an eye on the maiden, I'm happy to take the job."

Surprised yet more than pleased, Malayne followed Aethyta's lead. "You'll have the resources of our government to perfect that task, Matriarch Aethyta." They both turned and looked at the other Matriarchs.

The sky through the large window still carried the last strip of orange. Malayne stood at her favorite spot watching the sun setting rapidly. "The Matriarchs had their own connections to the Shadow Broker, that much was clear."

Aethyta walked over and stood next to her old friend. "If I were younger, I'd snipe North and fuck the brains out of South and be done with it!" She snorted.

The Grand Matriarch's mood changed and she let out a chuckle. "Wish things were that simple." She turned to face Aethyta. "You handled them well, Thyta. We got what we wanted. But their resources and their connection with the Shadow Broker still worry me a great deal. Our kid isn't safe from theirs or their business partners' reach. You'd better double the effort."

Aethyta took Grand Matriarch's hands and squeezed them with her strong hands. "I'd better get back to it."

Two sources of information yet no key was revealed. The Grand Matriarch cautioned, "Aethyta, find out why Cerberus wants the human Spetre's body. It might be the key to all of this."

Standing outside of the administration building, Aethyta contacted Onyx. "What's the status?"

Onyx said simply, "T'Soni has the body. She's heading to Illium."

* * *

**A/N:** With an apology to my friend Tayg, next up: Illium


	5. Chapter 5 Illium

**Second Life**

**Chapter Five – Illium**

In one of the busiest bars in Illium, Aethyta found the volus who owned Eternity sitting by the counter.

"Fern Gnor! How the heck have you been?" Aethyta gave the volus a slap on the back that almost tipped him over.

"Matriarch Aethyta of Thessia Clan! I wore my lucky shorts today…when I heard you were coming, not that you can see them." The breather punctuated his voice, but that didn't stem his excitement. "Have you reconsidered…my marriage proposal? Or perhaps, you agree to let me…trade your parental stock? It'll go up 158% before the winter on Irune…by my calculation. We don't mate in the winter."

"That's why you told me not to visit you on Irune in the winter." Aethyta took a mild drink the volus offered her.

"Does this mean…you'll visit me on Irune?" More excitement in his voice.

"No, it doesn't."

"Then you're just…toying with me." Now he sounded pouty.

"No, I need your help, Fern." Aethyta sat on a stool next to the volus. She made sure no one was listening to their conversation. "I need a banker to manage my credits, my purchases and investments."

As much as Aethyta wanted to take out Matriarch North and Matriarch South, their credits for the Tuchanka Project came through and Matriarch Jamaya had suggested that Aethyta should buy the shuttles and small ships for the project via the markets on Illium as fewer eyes watched the transactions here. And having a volus as the front man of this increasingly large account was the perfect cover.

"I would also like to take up your offer to be your part-time bartender." Aethyta downed another drink. When she only heard the volus breathing loudly through his mask with no reply, she put a hand on his small shoulder. "Fern, relax. Take a deep breath." She took a deep breath first as if to show how it was done, and the volus followed her instructions and breathed loudly through this breather.

"I can't believe you'd work for me!" He finally managed to speak, still breathing unevenly. "First an employee, next stop a wife! I'm glad…I wore my lucky shorts!" He started to mutter to himself.

Aethyta watched Fern dancing happily on his short legs as he took drink orders to his customers, and her thoughts turned to Liara. After receiving Onyx's report that Liara had the body and was headed to Illium, Aethyta came straight from Thessia. Liara's small ship hadn't yet made it back from Alingon where according to the commandos, she and the drell fought to get the human's body and where the Shadow Broker captured the drell.

_Thank the goddess Liara was okay!_

Now Aethyta needed a cover on Illium to watch Liara and to find out where she was taking the body and why.

Fern came back with a large empty tray, still bouncing happily. "Don't let the humans eat these nuts! I'm tired of giving free drink. It's their own fault to eat anything that's laid out on the bar." He instructed and then bounced his way toward the back.

"Where are you going, Fern?" Aethyta shouted after him.

"Telling my friends…first employee then wife!"

* * *

The asari commandos arrived on Illium ahead of Liara T'Soni. The Blue Sabre stayed hidden from the sensors on Liara's ship. Onyx assigned G.G. and Fin 2 to accompany the Matriarch on her mission while the rest of the squad stayed on the ship, waiting for the Matriarch's next order.

G.G. hacked the lock on Liara's apartment while Fin 2 kept a watch for her. G.G.'s head wound was still healing. Gauze had put a small bandage on it while G.G. was on a mission.

"How long does the program take?" Fin 2 asked.

"It usually doesn't take very long. But she's careful. She's put three layers of security codes on it." G.G. answered. She attached her program disc onto Liara's door and started the automated hacking process. "Hey Fin 2, I never thanked you for saving my life back on Omega. Onyx told me that if you hadn't caught me, I'd have plunged to my death."

Fin 2 smiled but didn't take her eyes off the entrance or the windows that surrounded the large hallway. "You saved all four of us first."

"So does that make us even?" G.G. remembered how Fin 2 wrapped her arm around her after she was injured and she smiled back.

"Not quite." Fin 2 still kept her eyes away from the young asari. "There was that punch you gave me." G.G.'s smile disappeared.

"You want to punch me back?" The young asari asked, uncertain what Fin 2 wanted.

Fin 2 laughed, "No, when we're alone, I want you to call me Alia."

* * *

Aethyta received the access code for Liara's apartment. She walked to the door grudgingly. _It's just so creepy to sneak around in someone's house, even if it's my own daughter's. _Onyx had informed her that Liara's small ship had arrived at the Illium docking port and she was taking a shuttle to her apartment with the stasis pod. Aethyta stood in the corner of the room behind a display case with a large rock waiting for Liara's arrival.

The door opened, Liara walked in carrying the heavy stasis pod with her biotics. As soon as the door shut behind her, Liara put down the pod and took a few deep breaths. She took off her medium armor and tossed it on the sofa. After fighting the Shadow Broker's army and losing Feron while she narrowly escaped with Shepard's body, the adrenaline was gone, and Liara's mind was too tired to tell her body to hold on for just a while longer.

She let her shaky legs go and took a deep breath as she sunk to the floor. Leaning against the stasis pod, Liara remembered how tired she was the first time she met Shepard. She was trapped in that Prothean bubble for two days without food or water, and when the humans rescued her, she remembered how she had to lean on Shepard for support. Liara let out a bitter smile. "If Benezia were here she would tell me to get over it and find someone else. We would have another fight. But at least I know when she gave me the wrong advice she did it out of love. If I completely broke down she would be there for me to make sure I didn't break beyond repair."

Aethyta took a deep breath to steady her body that threatened to go into a rage and let it out gently so that she didn't alert Liara of her presence, not that Liara was in any state to pay attention. Aethyta had always preferred action. She naturally emulated her father from a very young age: decisions and actions were sometimes followed by apologies. She had the luxury because her mother was always there to pick up the pieces both she and her father left behind, broken things and broken hearts. Aethyta had never wished herself to be more like her mother, until now, when her daughter needed a mother. Damn you, Nezzy! Why did you have to die?

Liara put a hand on top of the stasis pod very gently as though she was afraid of disturbing Shepard from her sleep. "After we escaped from Virmire when you almost died, I thought I would be lost without you. But it turns out it is not that simple. When the Normandy exploded and you weren't in the last escape pod, I wanted to find you and to go with you, even if it meant I'd die. Anything would have been better than how I felt after you were gone, anything. Even afterlife."

Aethyta cupped her hand over her mouth and fought to not let her shuddered breaths out audibly. Her first instinct was to put a hand on her daughter's shoulder and let her know that she could share her grief with someone who loved her unconditionally, and if she couldn't do that, her second instinct told her to leave. She couldn't watch her daughter break down and not do anything about it. She was afraid that if she held on for too long she'd go into a blood rage and break something or worse. Damn you, Nezzy! And damn your stupid wishes! If I hadn't sworn my blood oath to you that I'd never reveal myself to Liara!

Liara stroke the stasis pod lightly. "Did you know when you feel you have nothing to lose you kill more efficiently? I have killed and let people die to get you here, and I feel no guilt. I know in my heart that you would be disappointed in me for what I chose to do, that you would have stopped me if you were here. But you are not here, not really." Her hand had stopped stroking and tears that she thought had long dried up came again. "I would do it again even though I already know that you would hate me. I am giving you to the very people you hated the most for a chance, a chance to bring you back."

Aethyta almost gasped out loud. So that's what Cerberus wanted with the human's body, they wanted to bring Shepard back. But how? And why? One thing had become completely clear to Aethyta: Liara would do anything for Shepard even after the human was dead. The devotion Liara had shown to the human almost made Aethyta smile as she thought how much her daughter was like her father. Aethyta was the same way with Benezia - she did everything she promised Benezia even when it meant she couldn't be in her daughter's life. She knew it took enormous amount of strength to do what Liara was doing, and the father's pride she felt almost overwhelmed her. A small animal zipped by her from upstairs that made her jump. _What in the goddess' veil was that?_

"You see, my love, this is why I cannot completely break down." Liara's voice cleared up. She picked up the small animal and cradled it in her arms. "I do not care if you will hate me or banish me from your life when they bring you back. I have accepted that, as long as you come back. I know you can fight and I know if you feel a slight chance to fight to live you will succeed." Liara kissed the animal on the head. "After you were gone, I went to the Citadel and visited places where I could have told you how I felt about you, where I could have said that I love you. But I never said it to you, not even once. I can live with myself being an information merchant or even a killer, but I cannot live with myself to have never let you know the love I have for you. I love you, Shepard. I love you more than anything in this galaxy. Mimi T'Soni and I will wait for you no matter how long it takes." She let go of the cat and wiped her face of tears once more. She took a deep breath as if she had make a difficult decision, and she put a smile on her face and patted the stasis pod one more time.

"Come back to me."

* * *

Miranda let out a long sigh of relief as she saw the asari walk in with a stasis chamber on a small hover platform that LOKI mechs used on the Cross-shaped Lazarus Research Station. She quickly collected herself and put on her usual cool and confident expression. The Illusive Man's gamble had paid off and the asari had brought Shepard's body. Everything was going according to plan. Miranda watched the asari stay close to the pod. Her body language told Miranda she was protective of the one lying inside, maybe even possessively. She had to suppress a smile. She had been worried that the asari would change her mind about their deal, but now she knew she had made an offer the asari couldn't refuse, and she had done her homework well.

The Cerberus operative didn't know if she should shake hands with her guest or welcome her to this grim event, so she did nothing and waited for the asari to initiate the move.

Liara stood a few paces away with Shepard's stasis pod between her and the Cerberus operative, hesitating. She told herself this was a necessary compromise and temporary agreement, but the thought of handing Shepard, her Shepard, to Cerberus sickened her stomach. She knew she was trembling but she was powerless to stop it.

_I am doing this for Shepard! _Liara repeated it in her mind. _But why do I suddenly feel in peril?_

She put her hands behind her back and straightened her shoulders. "I am here as we agreed."

The Cerberus woman replied immediately. "I like a partner who keeps her end of the bargain."

"I am not your partner and I distrust your liking."

Miranda could hear the anger in Liara's voice and she wasn't sure why the asari harbored such hatred for Cerberus. Ever since their first meeting and during the asari's QEC meeting with the Illusive Man, Miranda could clearly see there was an unpleasant history. But the Illusive Man only shared knowledge he deemed necessary, and Miranda knew his philosophy and never asked for information her boss didn't want to share. "Now it's my turn to perform my end of the bargain." She replied simply.

"You said you would not change who she was." Liara's voice was strained.

Miranda was happy to hear a question she had a complete answer for and she was confident that it would please the asari. "We want to keep the Commander's professional desires and personal affinities intact, yes."

Liara stood in silence, still hesitating.

Miranda walked closer to the stasis pod. As she stared at the unremarkable beige chamber, her heart raced. The very thought of bringing someone back to life was a reward worthy of her talent, but the rebirth of humanity's only hope for survival? That would be the stuff of legend for those how knew the truth or the stuff of myth for those who didn't. She could feel that her mind was jittering.

_I can't believe she's finally here, ready for her recreation!_

Miranda didn't gloat like she'd seen her boss doing time and time again. The Illusive Man was always calculating and planning several steps ahead of everyone, and when things did turn out the way he wanted, he didn't bother to hide his satisfaction with his own handy work. Miranda saw it in the way he dragged his cigarettes and from the way he twirled Bourbon in his mouth before swallowing it.

Miranda was different.

Success wasn't something she worked for - it was something she lived for. It was a solid foundation that spoke to her basic self but more importantly it was a lure that she felt she could never quite grasp. It made her feel like a perpetual postulant always wandering outside of that sacred temple. It was this lure that drove her to seek every advantage and any help she could get to bring down that secret door.

When she looked up at the asari, she realized both of them had been staring at the dead woman in her coffin; one with a hope she couldn't quite let herself completely trust and the other with the surge of creative force she could hardly contain.

Miranda walked away from the stasis pod slowly, keeping a cool exterior in front of the asari. "Look, I know you don't trust us. I won't lie to you and tell you exactly who will come back. When one comes back from death or suspended near death in this case, it's conceivable that the experience might change a person. But both you and I are banking on the same Commander Shepard will return to life. On that you can trust us, you can trust _me_."

"How can I trust you?" _Your boss tried to have me killed._ "And how would you know who Shepard was?" _The way I do?_

There was agony in Liara's voice. The way she asked that last question made Miranda realize the asari wasn't trying to make a decision on behalf of a friend, a former comrade but as someone who was more important to the Commander, much, much more important. The Illusive Man had withheld that piece of information from her as well, or did he know?

Miranda knew no matter what she said would make very little difference. So she remained silent and watched Liara put a hand carefully on the stasis pod as if she was afraid to disturb the sleeping form inside.

"But I trust her and I know I can count on her." Liara lowered her head and silently patted the stasis pod. She stepped back.

Miranda nodded to a LOKI who had been waiting to perform security scan on the stasis pod. A red light came on its omni-tool accompanied by an alarm through its audio port. Miranda immediate brought her own omni-tool online, "You've been followed."

Liara's eyes widened as she watched the LOKI bend down to the stasis pod and retrieve a device. "Who's following me?"

"Scan the area." Miranda gave her order through the local comm. The scan found two ships lurking in the area: an asari military ship that's not far from the Mass Relay and a much smaller ship closer to the Research Station. "The bug must be from the small ship as their sensors need to be closer to us for the surveillance. The asari ship must have followed you, Dr. T'Soni." Miranda quickly assessed the situation.

"I did a scan of this entire system before I boarded the station but did not pick up anything." Liara checked her own omni-tool to confirm what she remembered.

"Our station is broadcasting a scrambler to hide our presence as well as other ships' presence. But our own program can detect all ships in the system. Here, I'll give you a scan program that can capture weapon and defense system information on the small ship following us. I'm guessing it's from the Shadow Broker. Since the asari ship is hanging back, I doubt their interest extends beyond your personal safety." Miranda tapped a few times to send the program to Liara's omni-tool. "Our station has very strong defense systems but only minimal weapons array. Given our precious cargo, my first plan would be moving out of this system." Miranda gave a quick glance at the stasis pod.

Liara tapped on her own omni-tool and said firmly. "I'll deal with the Shadow Broker's agents. It'll give you enough time to run."

"Jacob, mobilize the station. As soon as Dr. T'Soni disembarks, move the station out of the system." Miranda gave her order via the comm.

Liara had only a moment to watch the Lazarus Research Station move out of the view of her Starboard window before a small transport sized ship came into the portside view. Liara set her course to intercept and started the probing program Miranda gave her.

A salarian with a kinetic armor answered her hail, "Why are you blocking our path?"

"If you are going after the station, you will have to get through me."

A human appeared next to the salarian; he was in full body armor with a sealed helmet. "You're going to stop us all by yourself?"

His partner cut in, "Look, we're just simple information traders. We have no issues with you, Dr. T'Soni."

Liara quickly glanced at her control console, the hacking program was still running, she needed to keep them talking. "We both know you are not just simple information traders. You work for the Shadow Broker."

The human laughed. "If you're smart enough to know that then you should be smart enough to know not to mess with us."

The hacking program is still running. _Damn! _Liara cursed silently.

"Which is why I can not simply let you go. You will sell this information back to the Shadow Broker along with my life."

"What makes you think we haven't already?" The human was playing coy.

"We both know that your system is jammed and now I have that jamming program. You lost your long range communications the minute you went through the Relay. Your only chance to resume your communications is going back through the Relay, a chance I do not intend on giving you." It was as though she was listening to someone else making threats but Liara knew it was her very own voice. Her calm and determined voice surprised even herself, as she plotted the deaths of her enemies.

Hacking completed! Liara now had a clear picture of what guns the enemy ship had as well as its defenses. The bad news was that both of their ships had equal levels of firepower and defense systems, and Liara was at a clear disadvantage: there were two of them with one piloting the ship and the other manning the combat station.

The salarian changed his tactics, "Look, we don't want any trouble. We'll give up our pursuit and leave here."

Liara stood her ground. "Not an option."

"Shut up, Hemerit! The bitch thinks she can stop us all by herself." The human had lost his patience. "Look bitch, we both only have mounted guns and you know we'll run out of bullets long before either of us can penetrate the other's hull. Why don't you just act like a nice little whore in Afterlife and part your legs and let us go?"

Liara returned the verbal assault with her mounted guns, and the Shadow Broker agents returned fire. Liara got back to the cockpit and steered her ship toward the Mass Relay. A strong jolt knocked the ship's thruster off balance. Liara took the controls off auto and turned it to kinetic. She held the virtual joysticks delicately and watched the heat level on the internal sensors rise rapidly.

Another strong jolt sent her flying out of her seat. Pain lanced her shoulder, but Liara scrambled back on her feet and took control of the joysticks. Through her scanning program she could see the asari warship up ahead, and she knew soon they'd be able to see her. Liara was certain that the jamming program Cerberus had was also giving the asari ship trouble tracking her ship down, and that explained why the warship stayed near the Mass Relay – it wanted to catch her leaving the system.

Liara knew that one more well placed hit would overheat the ship's defense shield and possibly cause combustion through the ship's propulsion. But she was just a little too far away from the asari warship to see both her ship and the one pursuing her. She raised the Shadow Broker agents again. "If you have anything to say to your loved ones before you die, now it is the time to do so. I have turned on the voice recorder. You have exactly two minutes before your ship goes to pieces."

The salarian didn't say anything, but the human let out a strident laugh. "Oh, yeah? You and whose canon?"

"Hubris will get you every time." Liara shut off her jamming program and pointed at the front of the ship, "Their canon."

As her ship made a 90-degree banking move, the Shadow Broker agents' ship was heading straight into the Blue Sabre still with their mounted guns firing. The asari ship immediately picked up the hostile ship on their sensors and it returned fire.

A single front side canon sought its target and took out the small craft in a fiery explosion. While the asari ship was still trying to analyze the data of their defensive action, Liara drove her ship through the Mass Relay.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for TrebleNine's help in this chapter. Next up: The Migrant Fleet


	6. Chapter 6 The Migrant Fleet

**Second Life**

**Chapter Six – The Migrant Fleet**

Liara rode in on a corsair she traded information for with a salarian, or rather she took from a salarian who owed her credits for the information she provided. It was bigger than the small transport ship she had but smaller than a frigate. After her run-in with the Shadow Broker agents near the Lazarus Research Station, Liara learned not to make long trips with a small ship. She had hired a small crew to keep the ship running smoothly but every other trip she hired a new crew so that nobody could get too close and figure out what she was doing. She followed standard docking procedures for visiting with the Migrant Fleet, but when she walked through the docking bay door on the Neema, three quarian Marines greeted the visitor with their guns drawn.

"I have given you all the information you needed to grant me docking permission. I wish to visit with Tali'Zorah." Liara tried to keep calm.

"Your ship is unregistered. That usually translates into you're either a pirate or a slaver, and neither is welcome on the Migrant Fleet! Which one are you?" The quarian Marine with a yellow suit and red armor plating asked firmly.

"Neither." Liara kept her arms relaxed on her sides resisting the urge to put a hand on her pistol. "I am in the process of registering it with the asari Commerce  
Consortium. The registration has not come through."

"Why do you seek to speak with Tali'Zorah?" The quarian Marines still had their gun leveled.

"Tali is a friend. Has the Migrant Fleet become hostile to friends of quarian people?" Liara's voice showed noticeable irritation. Seeing that the soldiers wouldn't budge, Liara took out the Rannoch Code memory globe Tali had given her and pushed a small button to bring the RC to life. "Tali gave me this Rannoch Code memory core as a sign of friendship and sisterhood."

Two of the quarian soldiers lowered their guns, but the one who spoke was still unconvinced.

Tali's voice suddenly came on the speaker. "Kal'Reegar, stand down! Who told you to point a gun at my friend?"

A few moments later, Tali'Zorah vas Neema appeared through the docking bay door. She ran to Liara and the two old friends embraced for a long time while the quarian Marines took their leave.

"It is so good to see you, Tali!" Liara's voice was a little shaky.

"You too, Liara." Tali returned and finally let go of the asari. "Come on, let's go to one of the transport shuttles to talk. My quarters are crowded." Tali turned around and walked toward the large docking bay, holding Liara's hand.

Inside a small transport shuttle, Tali tapped on a few controls to provide enough lighting and a comfy temperature. Tali sat on one of the bench seats and dragged Liara to sit next to her.

"Have you heard from Garrus?" Liara asked as she looked around the shuttle.

"Not for a while. He sent a message saying he quit his job and he was going after a drug smuggler named Kishpaugh. I keep checking C-Sec's database to see if he has gone back to his old job, but he hasn't." Tali paused for a moment, "I miss him."

"Me too. I miss Wrex too." Liara looked at Tali who was still not letting her hand go.

"Me too."

Neither wanted to bring up the person they missed the most.

"You got a new suit." Liara ran her fingers lightly on Tali's arm checking out her new enviro-suit.

"Yes, I got it on the Citadel where Shepard and Garrus bought me the new filter for my birthday." She saw a faint smile on Liara's face, and that somehow made her sad. "I was sent to the Citadel by the flotilla not long ago. I was on the Presidium and I had to do a double take on this female Alliance office in her working blues. She reminded me of…" She stopped herself.

Tali opened a compartment on the sidewall and took out two water bottles. As they imbibed the liquid, the quarian spoke slowly. "I visited Rannoch not long after I left the Alliance. I snuck through the geth defense buoys and managed to not get detected. I knew it was risky, but what Shepard said to me a few days before she…died haunted me." Tali looked down at her hand holding the water bottle, she knew if she looked at Liara's face she'd break down. "We were talking about our future. She said 'I wish you had a home planet to go to after all this, like Liara and Garrus, so you could plant trees and make babies one day.'"

Liara chuckled a little, "Plant trees and make babies?"

"I think we were both drunk at the time." Tali looked up and gave a little chuckle too. "I don't know why, but ever since she put that image in my head I can't seem to forget it. A small cottage in a luscious dell." Tali's dreamy voice trailed off.

Liara smiled warmly, "Shepard was good at that, putting dreams in people's minds."

Tali nodded adding, "It's also more than that. After I got back and thought about my adventures, I realized that I really went to Rannoch to find myself. Before I met Shepard and joined the Normandy, I only knew how to be a quarian and that was fine. But after Shepard asked me those questions, I realized I didn't know what Tali wanted to be besides a quarian. My father had his expectations of me, but I guess that made it harder to figure out who I want to be." She lowered her head again but then she looked up straight at Liara. "That's what I miss about Shepard the most. She seemed to always be able to point me to the right direction."

Liara sighed, "I know, Tali. I am lost without her too. Having a home world does not help with that." Liara didn't want to share her own dreams. Nightmares actually; reoccurring and confusing. It always started with a burning ship, was it the Normandy? She couldn't be sure. Then she'd be on a planet, sometimes she knew the names, other times they were nameless. She was always digging in Prothean ruins, for what? She couldn't say exactly either, artifacts, secrets, treasures, love...but she had to hurry because the hunters were after her, and she didn't have much time. Who were the hunters? She didn't know, but she knew they moved silently like hunters, and they were seeking to capture her and do her harm. She often awoke from the nightmare wondering where she was; only Mimi's presence and Shepard's burned armor in the glass cage reminded her she was living in this life.

Tali nodded, "I know." Tali took out a small item wrapped in smooth fabric from her pocket, and unwrapped it to reveal the suit filter that Shepard gave her for her birthday. "My new suit isn't compatible with this filter, but I carry it with me to feel more at home."

Liara bit her lip and her face turned bitter. "I should have taken her with me when I made my escape, like I did after Virmire when I took her to the med bay."

Liara was considering telling Tali what she did with Shepard's body and the hope she was so tightly hanging on to. But instead she asked, "Why such tight security on the Neema? I followed all the regulations, still your Marines were very jumpy."

"We've had a few surprise attacks on the Migrant Fleet. Everyone is a little jumpy, not just us on the Neema."

"Who attacked you?" Liara remembered some space junk that looked like broken ship pieces when she passed the Mass Relay.

"Cerberus. You remember them, they were the ones who tried to first kidnap you and then to assassinate you." Tali's voice was angry. "They took advantage of our openness to outsiders and launched attacks against us."

Liara was suddenly glad that she didn't share what she had done with Shepard's body, and the quarian's anger casted a shadow on the hope that had seemed bright. Doubts once again plagued her mind, but she forced herself to focus on the task at hand. "Tali, I have managed to get my hands on the data collected by the Normandy before it was destroyed. I want you to look at it and see if you can identify the ship that attacked us, or at least identify what type of ship it was."

Tali launched both Chiktikka and the console in the shuttle's terminal, and she dropped the small disc Liara handed her in the terminal. An electro hum came on from the terminal and Tali instructed her combat drone. "Find matches from all warship class vessels in council space to the recording."

Nothing.

Tali tapped on her omni-tool and Chiktikka changed configurations a few times. "Find matches from all Terminus ship types minus civilian ships."

Chiktikka danced a few times. Still returned with empty search results.

Liara asked carefully. "Have you heard of the Collectors?"

Tali thought for a moment, then she gave another query. "Search for uncategorized ship types in space beyond Omega 4 relay." Suddenly Tali's omni-tool lit up with Collector ship models and found a match. "Keelah, how did you know it was a Collector's ship?"

"On a hunch." Liara's thoughts were racing. _Why did they attack the Normandy and why did they want Shepard's body? _"Tali, we must gain knowledge." She didn't want to speak the rest of her thoughts, _until Shepard comes back to use the knowledge we gathered._ She has to keep the burden of that piece of knowledge to herself, for now. "We must find out everything about the Collectors. They could be agents for the Reapers. We have to know our enemies before we can fight them."

Tali shook her head. "But how? I feel like sometimes we know too much and other times we know too little."

Liara suddenly felt pity for herself and her old friends. They had been on Illos and they alone had seen the dead civilization taking its last breath. Yet they were so powerless to convince everyone else in the galaxy to open their eyes and ears, to listen to the enemy's beating drums and their shadows coming to block our clear skies. Sometimes she envied those who were not aware the truth about the Reapers. They were granted illusions. They could pretend life was normal and tomorrow might bring new opportunities and better results for the work they did before, and their gods or goddesses were watching over them.

What a comfort that was!

Liara couldn't remember a time when she felt like that. Not after the invasion of Sovereign, not after her mother's death, and definitely not after Shepard's death. Thinking about her scattered friends, Liara was convinced that the only person who might have a chance to unite the galaxy against this one common enemy was Shepard.

_We need Shepard! We need Shepard badly! And I need her even more._

Seeing her friend lost in thought, Tali changed the subject. "I won't have another mission for three days. You should stay here for a couple of days. Did you buy the ship?"

Liara sneers, "I most certainly did not buy the ship. The salarian owner was killed in a trap I set that got him killed. With him gone, I could either leave the ship where it was and risk pirates finding it; or blow it up. So I took it for my own use, why waste a perfectly good ship?"

Tali had bent all her efforts to not look surprised, but Liara sensed her thoughts. "Although he paid his debt to the person he owed credits to with his life, his debt to me was never paid in full. I consider this ship as a fair trade."

Both of them knew it wasn't a fair trade, but a ship was a ship. And Tali certainly wasn't going to tell anybody to blow up a perfectly functional ship. She was a quarian after all.

"I will get one of my roommates another place to sleep so you and I can share a bunk." Tali took Liara's hand again and led her out of their temporary quiet oasis.

Liara let Tali take her into the bustling noise that the Neema's maintenance crew generated. With a distant stare she wondered if her sleep would be plagued by nightmares again_. I will go to sleep on the Migrant Fleet tonight, but where will I wake up tomorrow morning?_

* * *

Back in her quiet office on Illium, Liara missed the noise on the quarian ship. She missed Tali's consistent chatter, but most of all she missed being on the Normandy. Her apartment gave her shelter but she often wandered around in it feeling displaced. It was not home. Nyxeris' entrance brought her out of her reverie.

"Dr. T'Soni, I've come across a piece of information you might be interested in." She bowed her head respectfully, waiting for Liara's query and answered it simply, "I think I've found Commander Shepard's tags on the opening market."

Liara's eyes lit up. She looked at the datapad Nyxeris handed her and she nodded her approval. "These are her tags. You are incredibly thorough."

Nyxeris stepped back a pace. "A disgraceful flaw in my character."

Liara chuckled, "Then we shall wish we were all flawed in some ways."

_You have no idea what I'm capable of. And you have no idea what the Shadow Broker had planned for you! _In such moments, Nyxeris enjoyed her profession intensely. With a warm smile on her face, "You're most kind. I was never gifted at using my biotics, so I taught myself to pay attention to details and get good at organizing information." A feigned weakness often deflected enemy's suspicions and led them into traps. Deception created vulnerabilities in her enemies, and Nyxeris was a master of deception. "I hope this job won't get too violent."

Liara walked into the trap. "Don't worry, Nyxeris. If it comes to that, I will protect you. I have learned how to fight from the best this galaxy has to offer."

Everyone had warned her to beware of Liara's biotics power. She was after all the daughter of a Matriarch who possessed unmatched biotics in the galaxy, and she honed her fighting skills on the famous ship with the famous human Spectre who saved the Citadel. But no one had warned her how trusting Liara was even when her very life depended on it. The Broker had wisely kept the bounty on the human Spectre's body open, and Nyxeris fully intended to get it for herself. Then she could take her revenge, and when she did, she wanted to see the look on Liara's face.

She wouldn't be the one who'd killed the pureblood bitch, she wouldn't even be the one who dug the grave. The Broker had people who did all that. She might just tamp the dirt over the grave to appreciate her own handy work, knowing it was "the Observer" that brought down the asari who messed with the Shadow Broker. _If she even gets a burial. I didn't even have the body for a burial for my Hemerit! My poor Hemerit!_

The salarian who had followed Liara to the Lazarus Research Station was Nyxeris' long time lover. After his death, Nyxeris used all her resources in the Shadow Broker's network to make sure Liara hired her as an assistant.

* * *

The new crew on Liara's unregistered and unnamed ship joined her at the docks on Illium. Liara also hired two muscle men for the exchange Nyxeris had set up for her on a pirate ship out in the Terminus. Before she left the Migrant Fleet, Tali had installed some upgrades to her ship's defense systems. Liara wondered if the asari warship was still following her and when they'd make contact.

Before she boarded the pirate ship, she instructed the new crew. "If things go wrong and our ship is outmatched in a fight, you take off without me."

Seryna, an asari who used to work for Dantius Corporation, asked, "You should let me go with you. I used to be in a high security field and those two guys you hired look like thugs. They'd sell you for a few credits if they get the chance."

Seryna was the only crewmember Liara had hired twice to work on her ship. The asari's knowledge of security and communications systems impressed Liara. But she wasn't muscle for hire and Liara didn't want to put her life in danger unnecessarily. "It should be a simple exchange. I give them the credits and they give me the merchandise. But in case something bad happens, I do not want the crew get caught in the crossfire."

As Liara walked through the airlock onto the pirate ship, two men greeted her. The guy in the front was big and wore thick and bulky armor and the thin guy behind him wore an old leather outfit that could barely qualify as armor. Both carried side arms in their holsters and the thin man who had a mohawk held a small case in his hand.

The large man with bulky muscles spoke, "Dr. T'Soni, here's the burned tags you're interested in." He gave the mohawk guy a signal, and the thin man handed Liara the case.

Liara took a deep breath and opened the case. With a tight smile, she took the tags out and put them in her pocket and she handed the big man credits chit. "As we agreed."

The big man checked the chit. Satisfied, he handed the chit to the mohawk, then he nodded to the two guards that came with Liara. The two muscle men Liara had hired held her arms tightly, waiting for the big man to come closer.

"Let me re-introduce myself. Vido Santiago of the Blue Suns. You took something from the Shadow Broker and he wants it back. I'm here to find out where you took Shepard's body."

Liara should have known that the tags were traps. The Blue Suns had had Shepard's body, it was logical that they'd have her dog tags. Liara snorted at herself for not thinking this through, for not being rational, but these were Shepard's tags.

The only thing she could do right now was keep calm and look for an opening to escape or win a tough fight. "You are to be congratulated, Vido. You sprang a perfect trap. But if you think I will give up that information, you are walking on quicksand."

Vido huffed but settled down quickly. The mohawk however didn't. With incredible odds on their side, the mohawk got a little antsy. "Let me shoot out her kneecaps, boss! She wouldn't open that damned pretty mouth then."

"I'd like to see you try." Liara sensed that the mercenaries didn't want her dead before they pried the information their employer wanted. If she could get the hotheaded one make a mistake she might find an opening. She watched the mohawk's face turn red, but Vido put a hand up and stopped him.

"Look, everyone has a price. The reward is large enough that we can settle on a deal, you and us." Vido baited.

"Since when did the Shadow Broker hire waifs to do his dirty work?" Liara was still baiting the mohawk and it worked.

"Who did you call a waif?" He took out his pistol. "I'll kneecap you and then see who the fuck is the waif!"

"Did your mother show you how to shoot or did you just watch other people do it in a vid?" Liara kept up her insult.

"Boss, I'm going to kneecap the bitch!" The mohawk was shouting and waving his gun wildly.

Vido grabbed the mohawk's wrist and made him accidentally discharge his weapon. The bullet hit a glass case that displayed an old weapon near the window. Vido throttled mohawk's neck with his other hand, "What's with you and kneecaps? Didn't I tell you not to learn anything from Zaeed? It annoys me! Now, I have to get a new glass case."

Before Vido finished his lecture, the pilot's voice came on. "Someone is shooting at us." Quickly following the warning, the ship jolted. Everyone was off balance and Liara used this moment to bring up her biotic throws to topple the two men holding her. Then she pulled two glass shards with her biotics and drove them into the mohawk's legs.

"Oh, my knees!" The man fell face down on the floor. Liara turned and jumped through an escape hole without using the drop-down ladder. She slowed her fall with her biotics and made her way to the cargo hold. But to her dismay, there was no shuttle or any small ship she could use to get off the pirate ship.

Hearing footsteps on the ladder, Liara hid behind a stack of crates. Vido's voice instructed, "No grenades, I want my ship to get out of this in one piece. And no killing the blue bitch, or all of us are going to die by the Shadow Broker's hands."

Liara smiled and she stood up. A stack of crates moved slowly at first, then they twirled as if caught in a twister; when the momentum built up, the crates flew into the mercs searching the cargo hold and knocked them into the bulkheads. Before they could see where the crates came from, more crates flew in the air.

Vido had enough of this. He thought this was going to be an easy job, dealing with a single asari, but this wasn't worth the effort, and certainly not worth losing his ship. He ordered everyone back on the upper deck and released nerve gas into the cargo hold. As his ship reached its destination, he ordered his pilot, "Dump the bitch and get me out of the firing range of that asari warship!"

The pirate ship disgorged Liara along with the debris she caused in the cargo hold, and it took off like a featherless bird stung by a bee.

Seryna had been scanning the system for an asari warship as Liara instructed before she disembarked, and to her surprise, she found the warship on her scan. When Liara didn't check in at the agreed time, Seryna first hailed the pirate ship and got no answer. She knew Liara was in trouble. She moved the ship out of firing range and hailed the asari warship. The warship responded to her hail and fired on the pirate ship.

Watching the pirate ship speed toward the planet, Aethyta shouted at the helm on the Blue Sabre. "Don't lose that ship! And open a comm link!"

"They made a brief landing on Zorya and they took off." The helm reported. "The comm link is open, Matriarch."

Aethyta immediately hailed: "This is the Blue Sabre. Liara T'Soni, please respond!"

A man's voice returned her hail. "Liara T'Soni is no longer available."

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: Pirate Radio Network


	7. Chapter 7 Pirate Radio Network

**Second Life**

**Chapter Seven – Pirate Radio Network**

"Scan the planet!" Aethyta jumped into the communications pod and put her eyes on the scope that displayed planet-wide scanning. The result showed nothing but some debris.

"I see nothing, Matriarch." Replied the operator, monitoring the scans on her own terminal.

"Damn it! Do it again! She's got be there somewhere!" The Matriarch's voice had a slightly panicked tone.

G.G. took the console from the ship's operator and she quickly loaded a program from her own stash. As she launched the scan again, Aethyta started to see different colored lens filters flip by. "I've added a more granular atmosphere filter. Sometimes dense particles and gas can obscure our ship's regular scan." Her comment earned a sharp stare from the ship's operator.

Aethyta shouted, "I see something!"

G.G. moved the scan back to the last sector, "Yes, definitely gas. The gas was obscuring the scan and it's poisonous from the composition of the particles. I see a life form!"

Onyx cut in before Aethyta even gave the order to the commandos. "Get a shuttle down there!"

When the asari commandos brought Liara onboard the Blue Sabre, she was unconscious, poisoned by the gas. Aethyta walked briskly with the retrieval team toward the infirmary. Gauze shouted into her comm to the ship's doctors, "We're coming in now. The patient isn't responding to stimuli. She won't last long if we don't get the poison out of her respiratory system. Her nerve centers are deteriorating." She looked up at Aethyta, "They're ready for her."

Aethyta held Liara's hand. "Hang in there, kiddo!"

The Blue Sabre set a course to head back to Illium along with Liara's ship. Seryna had taken over the captain's duties while Liara was aboard the asari warship. Aethyta had Liara moved to her quarters after the doctors had purged the poison from her system. Now they just needed to wait for her to recuperate.

Aethyta had been pacing in her spacious room since they fetched Liara and settled her in the more comfortable bed than those of the infirmary. Aethyta had joked with the crew that her bed was so comfortable that she was embarrassed to even call it her "rack". "I feel like a consort sleeping in that bed!" But now she was grateful that she could provide this small comfort for her daughter.

"My daughter."Aethyta repeated it in a whisper. For so long, she had not let herself touch that part of her mind. The part that imagined what Liara was like when she took her first steps, what she said when people asked who her father was and what it was like to be close to her, to touch her skin and to look into her eyes and have Liara's eyes look back into hers. There were so many things she wished to teach the young maiden and so many places she wished to show her. When Aethyta first took the job of watching Liara after the Normandy's crash, she watched the young maiden from afar. But the way Liara climbed stairs, graceful yet efficient, was pure Benezia; but when she walked down the stairs, powerful and unapologetic, undeniably Aethyta. A subtlety that was obvious only through the eyes of those linked by DNA. She had smiled at the realization, but she quickly stopped herself.

"You're woolgathering, you fool!" She had berated herself. "You'll never get what you want!"

But now, Liara was lying right in front of her, and Aethyta was afraid to get too close. The peace she had made with this so long ago had been disturbed, and conflict inevitably followed.

_What should I even say to her? How much does she know about me? _

When Aethyta realized pacing wasn't helping her nerves, she finally sat down and tried to repair Liara's badly damaged armor. The rough landing had done a number on the armor; the broken crates and other debris cut through connecting joints and ripped claps clean off. The armor was beyond repair. Aethyta sighed and moved on to modding Liara's pistol. At least the gun still worked perfectly and Aethyta had gone through the entire armory on the Blue Sabre searching for the best mods for Liara's M-6 Carnifex. She knew she couldn't be there for her daughter every time she ran into danger, but at least she could make her weapon more efficient at protecting her.

Liara stirred and murmured something in her sleep. Aethyta put down the gun and walked closer to the bed. Liara's face was still pale and she frowned as she made a small grunting sound. Aethyta touched Liara's head lightly. "You're okay, Liara. You're safe." She whispered, not wanting to wake her up. When Liara's grunting didn't stop, Aethyta bent down and kissed Liara's forehead. That seemed to work as Liara went quiet and her face relaxed.

Aethyta smiled.

Liara woke up in a pristine room. She stared at the ceiling, _Am I dreaming? Where are the hunters?_ As her head cleared up, she saw an asari standing next to the bed she was lying in and she looked down at her arms, they were naked. She felt her body under the sheets, naked also. Panic spread on her face, she struggled to get up.

The asari put her hands on Liara's shoulders, "Take it easy! You're not ready to get up yet."

"My clothes!" Still panic in her voice, Liara searched around the room with wild eyes as if her most prized possession was in jeopardy.

"Relax. I'll get them for you." The asari first patted her arm and made sure Liara understood her words, and then she turned and opened a cupboard by the bed and took out Liara's clothes. "Your clothes survived the landing, but your armor didn't."

Liara quickly grabbed the clothes from the asari. With shaky hands, she searched the pockets and fished out a set of military dog tags. She sighed with brief relief and then she eagerly searched in another pocket and took out a small scarf. As she relaxed her body knowing that everything was safe, she noticed the asari's intense stare at the scarf in her hand. "My name is Liara T'Soni. But I get a feeling you already know that."

The asari moved her gaze away from the scarf slowly and stuttered. "I'm…I'm, I'm Matriarch Aethyta. Who…who gave you that scarf?"

"My mother, Matriarch Benezia, before she died." Liara looked at the Matriarch with curiosity. "Have you seen this scarf before?"

"I…I, um…" For the first time in her life, Aethyta was without words.

Of course she had seen that scarf before. Benezia had used the entire shroud to wrap Aethyta's wounded leg when they defended the temple in the last war. There were looters and mercs storming the temple, trying to get valuable artifacts and crystals stored in the temple before order was restored. With their squadmates dead, only Benezia and Aethyta guarded the entrance, and Aethyta was shot in the leg. Benezia had smashed the display case that stored the shroud of their goddess and used it to stop the bleeding as they had run out of Medi-gel. Benezia had told Aethyta, "We're going to need a miracle to survive this, Thyta. Perhaps the Goddess' grace will shine upon us now that you're wearing her sacred shroud." The miracle came in the form of asari commando reinforcements. When they were finally rescued, Aethyta ripped the small part of the shroud that hadn't been stained by her blood and kept it close until their separation. When she said her final goodbye to Benezia, she gave the small piece of fabric to the love of her life.

"You're going to need a miracle to raise our daughter well on your own, Nezzy. You keep this for me and you'd better keep her safe."

Staring at the miracle scarf in Liara's hand, Aethyta couldn't find the words nor place them in order. Liara broke the silence. "Why are you protecting me?"

"We take care of our own." Aethyta finally found her tongue.

"Am I yours?"

"Your mother was and that makes you ours." _And mine, always have been and always will be. _Aethyta repeated silently.

There was a touch of sadness in the Matriarch's voice that intrigued Liara. But before she could ask questions, the door chimed. A commando walked in.

"Priority One message from Lieutenant Kurin, Matriarch." The Yeoman handed Aethyta the coded message.

"_PRN went offline, need you back home now."_

Aethyta frowned. "How far are we from Illium?" She asked the commando.

"We're in the system now."

"Ask Fin 2 and G.G. to come here immediately." Aethyta ordered.

Aethyta didn't want to bring up Tuchanka; Thessia might not agree with her decision to trust Liara with this secret project, but Aethyta was more afraid that if she brought Liara too close to the Matriarchs who had connections with the Shadow Broker, he'd get wind of it. She didn't want to fight battles on too many fronts, Liara was in enough danger as is.

Fin 2 and G.G. walked in side by side and stood at attention waiting for the Matriarch to give orders. Aethyta beckoned them to get closer to Liara.

"We have to take care of another matter." Only a few months ago Aethyta was bored out of her mind. And now she wished she could be in two places at the same time. "But I'm leaving these two excellent commandos with you."

Liara swept her gaze from the Matriarch to the commandos as the Matriarch continued her introduction. She pointed to the elder commando, "Fin 2 is a sniper from our Armali Sniper Unit and she's very experienced in all combat situations."

Fin 2 offered a nod to Liara and remained standing at attention. Aethyta pointed at the much younger asari, "This one, she is our tech wizard. I've asked her to install some surveillance gear around your office and your ship so that they can watch out for you more efficiently. They'll take you in a shuttle back to your ship and stay with you on Illium."

"I'm G.G." The young commando smiled widely at Liara. Liara smiled back.

Fin 2 asked, "Why is your ship unregistered and without a name?"

Liara's smile disappeared and she looked at Fin 2. "I took it from a salarian who made a deal with the Collectors. I am in the process of registering it. As for the name, what name could you give to a dead man's ship?"

"The Collectors?" Aethyta's mind went back to what Aria had told her, _the Collectors are bad news._

"Yes, the salarian made a deal with the Collectors to get them a highly advanced human genetic formula that Cerberus has. He offered Cerberus the secret code to get through the Omega 4 relay without being destroyed in exchange, but he couldn't deliver the goods. He also offered me the recordings of the Normandy's destruction for connecting him with Cerberus and he failed to deliver that too. I gave Cerberus the location and time of our rendezvous. They killed him." Liara lowered her gaze. Her mind wandered to Feron. It was the drell who set up the Cerberus exchange that killed salarian, but Liara had a strong suspicion that the cheater's number was up. _He wanted all yet sought to pay nothing._ Liara thought she should feel guilty for her hands in his death, but she didn't.

"When I took over his ship, I discovered he cheated the Collectors as well. They uploaded several pieces of information including the recording from the Normandy as a bargaining chip for the formula, but the salarian was going to sell the Collectors' stash to the Shadow Broker."

"Does the Shadow Broker know you have the information from the Collectors?" Aethyta started to realize how deep Liara had tread into dark territory and it worried her.

The Matriarch's worried tone gave Liara pause. She thought about the question for a moment. Up until now she hadn't realized what a powerful enemy she had made, an enemy not only powerful but also invisible. How do you fight someone you can't see?

"If he doesn't, he will soon. The trap I walked into on that pirate ship was set by the Shadow Broker's agents, though they wanted something else from me." Liara certainly didn't want to share the secret of Shepard's body with strangers, even if they were here to protect her. "I will not be intimidated. He captured a friend of mine. I will not stop until I find his base no matter how deep a hole he is hiding in." At this very moment, Liara firmed her resolve. She made a mistake once for inaction, when she should have acted, putting a biotic field around the one she loved and dragging her into an escape pod, she would not make the same mistake again. She'd act when her instincts told her so and she would not look back with regret.

"If you'd like we'll use our resources to help you find him." Aethyta offered knowing full well it wouldn't be that simple. The Shadow Broker had remained hidden for generations, wielding his power in darkness where no light had shone and no trespassers had ever returned alive.

The road Liara was trudging on was indeed narrow and slippery.

* * *

A shuttle carrying the asari commando squad and a krogan battle unit sped toward the remote pirate planet. As they reached near the surface, Aethyta could see the landing lights of shuttles and small ships darting around platforms like fireflies in darkness. Temporary buildings of different shapes dotted the piece of flat land that was surrounded by sharply raised hills, providing perfect ground cover for the hidden operation. Turrets stood on top of the hills like watchful eyes with deadly intention.

Wrex turned to his krogan unit, "Wait in the shuttle. We won't be long."

Onyx and another two commandos insisted on accompanying the Matriarch. The asari squad leader didn't trust any mercenary let alone an ex-asari commando turned pirate. As they walked toward the main building, the full scale of this pirate base impressed the visitors.

Two giant mechs trundled between space vehicles and the sprawling warehouses, moving crates and barrels. Forklifts moved much quicker and more nimbly around the mechs, like ants crawling around large trees. Spotlights illuminated building entrances.

An asari wearing blue armor that didn't look too different from the one Onyx was wearing walked through the main entrance with a large krogan following her steps. Wrex quickened his pace into a jog toward the asari and shook her hand.

"Aleena, it's been a while."

The asari had a big smile on her face. "I didn't think I'd see you again. I made a deal with Commander Shepard that she'd bring you back alive after fighting Sovereign so that I could put a bullet in your head."

"Shepard always honored her word." Wrex said in his booming voice. "I hope I'll have the honor of putting a bullet in your pretty head first."

"I look forward to that moment."Aleena flicked a gaze at the asari commandos behind the krogan. "You've already made powerful friends, I see. You've become quite the diplomat, Wrex." Aleena knew how much Wrex hated politicians.

Wrex smiled at Aleena's jab and stepped aside to reveal the slender asari Matriarch behind him. "Let me introduce you to Matriarch Aethyta."

"Don't make me sound so old, Wrex. Just Aethyta." She gave the asari mercenary a nod. "A fucking impressive operation you've got here."

Sensing acceptance, Aleena smiled. "We try to keep it small so we can move on a moment's notice."

Aleena invited the landing party inside and showed them the star map she'd prepared for them. "Our broadcast post was set up here. Someone hacked into it and jammed not only the signal from that tower but also three other towers in three different systems. We traced the route that connected these PRN posts and scanned for ships. Two ships came up, one warship and one transport traveling together. We did some hacking of our own and discovered these on the warship and a few dozen prisoners on the transport." Aleena tapped on the screen to bring up the images from the warship's security cameras.

Wrex made a deep grunting sound. "I've seen these before on Virmire. They're Reaper's indoctrination tanks. Saren was using them to breed a krogan army."

"That's when I thought to contact you. They took out our broadcast posts for a reason." Aleena's suspicion was confirmed. "That might also explain why they have a ship full of prisoners."

"Breeding human husks and indoctrinate them." Wrex had seen enough. "What are we waiting for? We need to blow up those tanks before somebody gets their hands on them and uses them."

Aethyta felt a sickening sensation deep in her stomach. _This was how they took Nezzy. Did Saren put her in one of these tanks? _ Some day she would ask her daughter about the last time she saw Benezia and how she succumbed to the Reaper indoctrination. But not now, the wound was still too fresh. A sigh escaped her but she covered it with a cough. "Do you know who these guys work for and where they're headed?"

Aleena nodded. "When we hack into a system, we leave no stone unturned. We downloaded every program our hacking software had access to." Her fingers danced on the screen once again and brought up a human's profile. "The person who purchased these tanks is the same person who bought the prisoners from a prison ship called Purgatory. His name is Henry Lawson. The ships are heading to a secret facility on Horizon."

They quickly agreed on the plan of attack Aleena had devised but before they moved out, Onyx asked. "Matriarch, can we trust a rebel?" Onyx had been staring at the emblem on the armor of the krogan who followed Aleena's every step, the same emblem Onyx was wearing as a badge of honor on her own armor.

_She had the grace to not wear the emblem herself, but she branded her slaves with the sacred emblem. Definitely a rebel!_

"No, but we can trust Wrex." Aethyta answered simply. Aleena gave Onyx a smirk.

As soon as the Blue Sabre took down the landing bay door on the enemy's warship, Aleena's tech quickly restored the kinetic barrier in place of the heavy door and the small army of asari commandos, krogan warriors and seasoned mercenaries was ready to assault. The warship had two levels, and the plan was Aleena would take her people to the upper level and Aethyta and Wrex would cover the lower level. But before they set out, the ship's defensive force stormed the landing bay.

A large group of heavily armored soldiers hiding behind large shields poured in, following a giant mech. The mech started launching rockets. Aleena dragged the krogan next to her down. "Klang, you can't fight rockets by charging at them!" Watching the asari commando hiding behind another stack of crates, Aleena quickly rolled from her hiding spot to join them. She stopped next to Onyx, "You think you can pick the driver in that giant mech from here, Sixth Fleet?" Aethyta had told her Onyx's military pedigree.

Onyx motioned one of the Fins to give her a sniper rifle. She loaded a bullet and a fiddled with the sensor knobs on the scope. When she was ready she gave Aleena a nod. Aleena jumped up from behind the crates and put up a strong barrier in front of herself and Onyx. The asari commando quickly stood up, aimed her rifle and pulled the trigger.

Rockets stopped flying and the giant mech made whiny sounds as the servos in its arms and legs ground to a sudden halt. Onyx didn't bother to respond to Aleena's smile, she shouted to her troops. "All grenades."

In a precise move, all members of her squad tossed their grenades into the soldiers with shields. And Aleena shouted her order to Klang who'd been waiting a few paces away. "Attack!" The krogan and the mercs jumped over their cover and rushed toward the enemy. Gunfire filled the large landing bay.

When the asari squad and the krogans reached the door to the bio tanks, they discovered the heavy door was tightly locked with encryption. Aleena's troops were still clearing the upper level and none of the asari commandos could crack the door.

Aethyta cursed. "Damn it! I wish G.G. were here!"

Wrex walked up, "What's the problem? You can't get through a door without a little asari tech to help you? Do you not see the warriors I have with me?"

Wrex beckoned his people to join him a few feet from the heavy door and he lined them up in a tidy row facing their obstacle. Aethyta smiled and patted Wrex on the back, "Shall we?"

"On my mark!" Wrex joined his warriors and Aethyta stood next to him. As Wrex gave the order, a line of large krogans and a slender asari charged at the door. The first impact shook the ship but didn't make a dent on the door, though the lock flickered. The second round took out the lock but the door was still tightly jammed shut. Then the third and forth…

By the time Aleena came down after completing the sweep upstairs, the giant heavy door with a thick lock lay on the floor, mangled at the hinges and dented everywhere.

"Did you literally bring down the door? You couldn't wait for my tech to hack it?" Seeing a double-wide smile on Wrex's face, Aleena shook her head. "Oh, Wrex. How I have missed you!" She then turned to Aethyta who was rubbing her sore shoulders, "Matriarch, you do know that you could have used your biotics?"

Aethyta grinned freely. "It wouldn't be nearly as fun."

Aleena brought a captive whose armor bore Cerberus insignia. Aleena's people tied the captive to a chair and they stepped back.

"You can't destroy the tanks! These are very valuable for research. I will share the profit with you. Just name your price!" The captive was the captain of the warship.

"You don't keep deadly machines no matter how much someone is paying for them! They kill people." Aethyta asked, "Where is the facility you're dropping the cargo?"

"I really don't know. They'll contact us when we're in the system and provide a rendezvous point."

"How many guards are there on the prison ship?" Aleena asked.

"About fifty." The captain answered. "Look, I'll tell you everything, just don't kill me or destroy the tanks, please!"

Aethyta nodded to Onyx, "Take him to the shuttle and blow up this ship."

"No!" The captain protested before two commandos took him away.

Wrex muttered to himself. "Fifty, huh?" He turned to Aleena and saw her smile back at him. "That was how many we faced on that pirate ship, wasn't it?"

Aleena grinned at Wrex, "You're thinking what I'm thinking? Is this our chance to complete our little game? We take out the fifty and I put a bullet in your head?"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking, except it'll be me putting a bullet in your head." Wrex's eyes glimmered.

The transport ship was much easier to break into especially the lower level where the prisoners were kept. Without the protection of the warship, the guards and crew of the transport ship had barricaded themselves at the upper level and waited for the imminent assault. That let the commandos, krogans and the band of mercs board the ship easily and quietly and the army spilled into the narrow and windy pathways.

"Where are the prisoners?" Klang asked.

"Look down." Aleena lowered her rifle and pointed her chin at the floor.

Below the gridiron, human heads and faces bobbed in the dim light. Muffled noise came through the metallic bars, and the prisoners spoke in hushed voices. "We need some water. We have sick inmates who require water."

Everyone dropped down on their knees to look at the trapped humans. Aethyta cursed, "Damn! If we turn them over to the government, they'll either send them back to Purgatory or some penal colony."

Looking at their haggard faces, Onyx offered. "We can provide them with rations and water, but we can't just set them free."

Aleena stepped in. "I'll take them."

"So we'll have more mercs to fight in the future?" Onyx didn't hide her displeasure with the idea and with the person who proposed it.

Aleena gave her a sharp glare. "We'll need more fighters and we can train them."

"But they're criminals!" Onyx protested.

Aleena shook her head at Onyx and pointed at the krogan standing next to her. "You see Klang here? He got put in prison for a bar fight, then sold to a private krogan fighting ring until I got him. He's not my slave. He can leave anytime and go where ever he wants."

"I'm not going anywhere except wherever you go." The krogan said.

"See, this is why I became a rebel and stayed a rebel." Aleena gave Onyx another harsh stare.

Wrex cut in. "Can we talk about this after we take out the enemies above us?" He pointed his finger up.

Aleena moved her gaze from Onyx to Wrex. "How do you want to play this? You go from the front of the ship and I come from the back?"

"And we meet in the middle. Just like old times." Wrex agreed.

Aleena extended her arm and Wrex grabbed it, and they offered each other their parting words.

"It is the victors who breed."

"Goddess' grace protects us all."

Aleena turned and disappeared around the corridor, alone. Moments later, a loud melody played over the loudspeakers. The long wavering notes of ululating high and low voiced female singers blasted their ears. A few commandos chuckled and even Onyx had a faint smile.

"What is that god awful music playing through the ship's comm system?" Wrex complained.

"An old asari tribal song. Your friend has a fucking sense of humor. It's a song about two birds racing into fire after eating a fruit that made them hallucinate. We still use it today when dancers perform the traditional hunting dance." Aethyta shouted her explanation to Wrex over the loud music.

Wrex pumped his shotgun with a big grin. "You wait for one of us to call you in, not before!"

"This is a fucking waste, Wrex." Aethyta knew the honor of a warrior's death too well, but she just made a krogan friend. What a shame it'd be to lose him to this silly game.

"Don't butt in!" With that Wrex took off running upstairs all the while shouting, "Where are you all hiding, worms?"

Looking at Onyx's disapproving face, Aethyta threw her arms up. "Hey, I don't like it either." But she didn't make a move to stop it.

Above the central control room in the ventilation duct, Aleena could barely muffle her giggles while watching a dozen Cerberus soldiers bash the controls.

"Where is that music coming from?" The leader of the group shouted into his tech's ears. "Find the source! And find it now!"

More bashing on the keyboard.

Aleena tapped on her omni-tool silently, and the rondo beat got louder. The men below her covered their ears. "Turn it off!" The leader demanded.

"I can't! I don't know where it's coming from!" Now five people were standing by the console and mashing at the keys.

A string of staccato notes filled the air, startling the Cerberus men. The leader pumped his shotgun, "When I find the person who did this, I'll cut off his ears!"

_Wait for it, wait for it. _Aleena lined up her feet with the side door of the duct. _Wait for the legato! _Aleena told herself.

Slow and silky notes flew into the room, Aleena kicked the duct open and dropped down in the middle of unsuspecting men. As the music flew sneakily like traces of smoke, Aleena stretched her hands out and called up her biotics. Crates and furniture in the room started flowing in the air around the asari, building a rotating wall of heavy objects. Aleena's arms moved with the music, commanding the objects like a dancer creating shapes and moods with her body and mind.

As the speed of the moving objects trapped in the biotic field increased, the Cerberus leader finally brought himself out of shock and shouted to his soldiers. "Fire, fire, fire! Kill the bitch!"

Gunfire rang out. A moment later, a large biotic blast sent a shockwave in every direction. Crates and furniture flew through the air like large missiles knocking down everyone in their paths. When the flare of biotics dissipated, Aleena was the only one still standing in the room. She walked over to unconscious bodies and methodically shot each in the head.

The music had reached its last note. Aleena stood a few paces away from the large door; looking at the blood on her arm, and smiled. She reloaded her pistol and leveled it at the door, waiting for her final target. _Soon all savage will cease to exist; my life is in the hands of my goddess. I shall find peace in the eternal embrace._

Wrex's voice seeped through the door. "Show yourselves, worms!" Then came the sound of a shotgun and multiple rifles firing and bodies dropping on the floor.

Aleena tightened her grip on the pistol. The door opened, but no one was there. In the complete quietness, Aleena knew Wrex was setting a trap for her. She stood her ground and waited. But what if Wrex got hurt or worse? What if the Cerberus goons had denied her the long awaited satisfaction? She knew if she called out she'd give away her position, but she had her gun ready to fire. So she decided to risk it.

"Wrex?"

That was all Wrex needed. He hopped out from the side and shot Aleena with his own pistol. "I won!" Watching Aleena's body dropping on the floor, Wrex started a loud war cry, but he stopped in the middle of it, looking at his own gut. "Oh, shit!" Aleena had got him at the same time through the soft layer of his armor just below the hard chest plate. Wrex dropped on the floor a moment later.

Ever since the music stopped, Aethyta had been trying to raise Wrex but got no answer. She asked Klang to try and raise Aleena. The krogan reluctantly called his boss but didn't get an answer either. Finally Aethyta gave the signal, and Onyx, Gauze and Klang followed her to the upper floor.

In the central control room on either side of the door, there were two bodies lying on the floor. Onyx ordered Gauze, "Check them!"

Gauze bent down checking Wrex first then Aleena and she looked at Onyx. "They're both heavily sedated. It seems both of them shot the other with a tranquilizer dart. Aleena has a shallow bullet wound on her arm."

Onyx hid a faint smile. "Patch her up." She stepped aside so that the Matriarch could have a full view of the situation.

Staring at two forms deep in slumber, Aethyta sighed loudly. "For fuck's sake!"

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: Lazarus Research Station


	8. Chapter 8 Lazarus Research Station

**Second Life**

**Chapter Eight – Lazarus Research Station**

Growing up in an old English style castle with an immense mote, Miranda had everything at her disposal yet nothing to call her own. Her father's secluded castle in Australia's Wetland had the best of everything that catered to her education. She wanted to learn about genetics, there was the best lab with specimens from all over the galaxy; she wanted to study computer chips, a large computer room was set up with the most advanced systems and programs credits could buy just down the hall. The size of the estate was indescribable because in all 18 years she had lived there, Miranda had never managed to comb through the grounds or visit every room. While the house had everything she needed, it didn't have one thing she wanted. A mother, a soul.

Seeking what she didn't have, Miranda developed a secret passion for history. Late at night, she would sneak into the computer room and hack the firewalls her father had set up to keep her extranet privileges in check and download countless history books onto her OSDs. She taught herself to read things closely and to pay attention to the people behind the events. Eventually truth emerged from the history books. They taught her one thing that was above all others, one thing that was at the top of natural order: survival.

Gradually she dismissed the thought of owning a piece of property to stake her name on or a place called home. Why tie yourself down when you already had the most important thing: your life? In some ways, Miranda found a common ground with Shepard. The Alliance Commander lived on spaceships and called the ships she was stationed on her homes. But reading Shepard's files closer, paying attention to the people behind the events, Miranda realized how different Shepard was. Shepard had in fact built a fortress and staked her name on something far more valuable than any castle she'd seen. Shepard had built a network of people whom she trusted and people who would march to their deaths for her. That stumped Miranda and she had no files or research data to turn to for recreating that or even a way to measure the degree of her success.

On this day, day 258 of the Lazarus Project, Miranda Lawson was stumped.

For two nights now, Miranda had snuck into the operating room where Shepard lay. Like the days of her youth searching for the truth beneath the surface, she studied Shepard's face that had already been reconstructed. It was pale, like the rest of her body. But beneath the pale skin, Miranda had created something extraordinary. Not only had she reanimated the body of Commander Shepard, but she had made it far better than the original. The bones were 30% stronger, the spine reinforced, the skull too had a stronger composition; and her immune system and cell regeneration were far more efficient. Miranda used what she learned from her own genetic modifications and improved the formulas further. The biosynthetic fusions had gone beyond the specs. Given more time, Miranda would improve the numbers even more, she was quite certain of it. Like an artist with her sculpture, inch-by-inch, she'd make her creation shine. The new Commander Shepard would be stronger, faster and healthier than any human being ever lived. She would be Miranda's David because she designed her to be a masterpiece!

She designed her. There lay the word that had kept her up at night. _I can design and build a super body, but how do I design and build the original mind? How do I measure emotions and feelings?_

She didn't need to look at Shepard's face to see what the scars looked like, Miranda had spent countless hours painstakingly designed the facial reconstruction and her endless simulations predicted exactly how the scars would look. But standing in front her creation, Miranda couldn't help but stare at the scars on Shepard's face. The shapes of the scars and the red glow through the cracks reminded her something.

_Why do the shapes look so familiar?_

Bekke! That's it! The planet Bekke out in the Nemean Abyss. Its surface looked like this due to the volcanic eruptions and lava flows. Her subconscious had led her to a solution. She quickly walked out of the operating room and called into her comm. "Jacob, please unlock the implant vault. I need to get a chip."

Jacob's sleepy voice replied, "Miranda, it's 3am in the morning." After a moment of pause, he came back on. "Meet me at the vault. I'll be right there."

"Why can't you just give yourself access to the security code?"

"We need to keep security codes on different wings separate to prevent station wide sabotage, you know that. If someone gets you to steal the chips, you wouldn't know how to use them without the programs in my possession. I know how to use the chips therefore I need you to guard them." Miranda didn't want to explain the security protocol to her second in command again, but seeing Jacob's blank stare and slightly opened mouth from lack of sleep, she offered, "I know you've been working overtime, I promise, as soon as we get the chip out, I'll let you go back to bed."

"What's so important about this chip that you couldn't wait until the morning?" Jacob started unlocking procedure.

"Do you remember Bekke?" Miranda's voice was enthusiastic.

"The volcanic planet in the Nemean Abssy? Sure, we found some eezo there to help the scientists and save the Council, why?" Jacob rubbed his tired eyes.

"Do you remember the asari scientist Batha? After you raided the batarians lab, she gave us the implants and computer programs she collected in that lab as a thank you gift for rescuing her? One of the implants was a neural implant that help monitor neurological response to outside stimuli and record electromagnetic waves in the brain."

"Vaguely. Didn't the batarians use it for mind control or something?"

"Yes, but that's only one of the functions. The observation and recording functions are what I'm after here. Since the implant provides secondary functions, I'll remove it along with other secondary implants before activating the subject." The intense anticipation of what this chip could potentially bring made Miranda tremble. This could be the solution to her puzzle, the final piece to complete her masterpiece! Miranda had to suppress the excitement threatening to betray her cool expression.

"With changes like this, don't you have to talk to the boss about it?" Finally the long procedure for unlocking the vault was completed. Before Jacob stepped aside, Miranda turned her body smoothly and slid beside her second-in-command.

"Yes, I'd imagine it'd be a fun conversation." Miranda had disappeared into the maze of containers in the large Cerberus vault.

* * *

Grand Matriarch Malayne and Matriarch Jamaya disembarked a small shuttle just outside of the temple's main entrance. Aethyta followed behind them. Today wasn't the monthly visit the Grand Matriarch and her right-hand administrator made to offer their prayers to Goddess Athame. Today was different. Aethyta's presence was a testament to that. Today they were here to see the Oracle.

The Matriarchs walked briskly toward the Great Hall's grand entrance where the Oracle stood with two acolytes waiting quietly.

Astrana was their Oracle. All Astranas came from the same family, generation after generation, bred to serve a single purpose: to hear the voice of the Goddess. They gave up their own identities and their own ambitions at birth, taking on the role of the Oracle. While other priestesses and high priestesses provided services to those who sought help; some even traveled to other asari worlds and beyond on missionary works, Astranas never left the temple.

Only Astrana and four senior Matriarchs had access to the inner sanctum called "The Keep". When the need rose for the Oracle's service, Astrana usually went into The Keep herself and sought the guidance from the Goddess. But today was different. All four Matriarchs were prepared to seek guidance along with Astrana. It only happened once before as far as Aethyta could remember and the last four Matriarchs included Benezia.

The Oracle greeted the Matriarchs at the entrance and turned to lead the way. Inside the Great Hall, Matriarch North and Matriarch South were already waiting nervously. Aethyta stood near the entrance of the Great Hall watching everyone hurry behind Astrana and the Grand Matriarch as they led the way into the inner sanctum, only Jamaya spared a look in her direction before scurrying to catch up with the group. After Benezia died, Jamaya had taken her place as one of the future seekers. Aethyta wasn't high on the list as replacement; not even Tevos made the cut.

Aethyta was never offended for not being included in this small circle because she had never believed the mumbo jumbo herself.

_It's a load of varren crap! How did the Oracle not predict the invasion of Sovereign? How did she not predict the fall of Benezia?_ It had to take a 30-year old human and the entire galactic fleet to stop one Reaper and save the Destiny Ascension's ass, yet not a single word of warning from the Oracle! Aethyta was more pissed than ever about the asari leadership's inaction. _We should've had at least a few dozen Destiny Ascensions fighting Sovereign, not just one hiding behind everyone. If the Goddess saw that, she'd strike us all down before the Reapers even get here! _

"Oracle my ass!" Aethyta muttered as she walked in the gardens behind the temple. Fall had reached this part of Thessia. Leaves covered the large grounds where trees and plants were turning to deeper shades of colors. The grounds keepers were pruning and tying branches together to prepare for the cold winter.

Winter was indeed coming. Aethyta breathed in the fall air detecting a faint smoky smell as the grounds workers' incinerators burned dried branches. She looked up at the clear sky and wondered what the Oracle would say this time. The discovery of the indoctrination tanks on the Cerberus ship and the intention of producing indoctrinated humans had led to this urgent visit to the Oracle. The fate of Matriarch Benezia loomed large in everyone's mind still and a renewed sense of doom grew stronger. Our best mind couldn't resist Reaper's indoctrination, what chances did we have? And if the technology was still out there, being traded on the open market, it was only a matter of time someone like Saren got hold of it and bred his own army. No wonder all the Matriarchs came and the Grand Matriarch summoned Aethyta to wait for orders. Action must be taken immediately after the consultation with the Oracle.

"This is bad. We must prepare." Astrana had abandoned her usual speech after the group reemerged once again in the Great Hall.

No mumbo jumbo today? Aethyta walked quickly to join the group.

Astrana continued, "The voice spoke of Prothean's extinction. If we don't prepare we might suffer the same fate." More clear sentences from the Oracle, none of her usual esoteric facts and veiled answers.

_This is bad! _Aethya swiped her gaze around the Matriarch's faces; each of them was tight as a drum.

"I miss the simple days." Matriarch North sighed, looking at the distant sky, forever longing for the good old days.

The Grand Matriarch didn't waste any time. "Matriarch Aethyta, you mentioned the Cerberus ship had quarian fleet security codes. Take the prisoner you captured and offered him along with the information to the quarians. In exchange we ask them to share their information on the geth's activities. Leaked reports from the Council indicated Sovereign emerged from the Perseus Veil along with the geth army. We must find out everything we can from the quarians."

Aethyta turned and took her leave before the other Matriarchs finished their discussion. The clock was now ticking and she had no time to stand around and chat. But first she had another matter to take care of before leaving the temple.

When Matriarch South in her bright pink dress with a deep purple center stripe stepped onboard of her double stretched shuttle, her bodyguards didn't give her the customary greetings and a shoulder rub. Two asari commandos dressed in full armor shut the shuttle door promptly behind her.

A few steps away, Aethyta stood tall with her arms crossed in front of her waiting for Matriarch South to get closer. A muffled noise came behind Aethyta. As Aethyta stepped aside, Matriarch South saw her two turian bodyguards hogtied on the floor, gagged and struggling.

"What's the meaning of this?" Matriarch South demanded.

Aethyta took out the gags from the turians' mouths as the danger of alerting Matriarch South was over. One of the bodyguards shouted to his mistress, "We thought it was you coming, we had to open the door!"

Both turians looked a little unusually hyper. Even though their legs were tied behind their bodies and their hands behind their backs, they were still constantly struggling as if that could get them free. "We were only trying to give you a massage before she tied our hands and feet." The other turian shouted this time. Both turians had soft pink head covers that matched the Matriarch South's pink dress and their hideous looks were only outmatched by their whining that Aethyta had never heard from a turian.

"What the fuck?" Aethyta was amused by the turians' behavior.

"We love you!" The first turian shouted again when he didn't hear a response from his mistress.

"Shut up!" Matriarch South had the grace to blush a little embarrassed by her servants' display. She turned to look at Aethyta, "What do you want, Aethyta?"

"Information. Who's your contact with the Shadow Broker?" Aethyta cut straight through.

"You thought you could get information from me by assaulting my bodyguards?" Matriarch South thinned her eyes.

"I'd offer you sex but it looks like you're more than covered." Aethyta said loudly trying to overcome the turians' whining voices. To her surprise, Matriarch South let out a chuckle. "Besides, you can hardly call what I did an assault. These guys are more pathetic than a pyjak on butcher's block. They begged for their lives before I had to use my biotics. I was actually looking forward to a head butt or two." Aethyta looked at the two turians on the floor sounding disappointed. " But not getting any from these two. What do you put them on?"

"My own little concoction. Keep them more…agreeable to my demands." Her snaking voice didn't hide her glee.

"Obsequious is what the fuck it is!" Aethyta snorted.

"We love you!" The two turians declared together.

"Shut up!" Both Aethyta and Matriarch South responded. The Matriarchs looked at each other, both chuckled at the same time. Matriarch South gestured for Aethyta to sit in leather covered jump seat near the hogtied turians on the floor.

"You just happened to bring ropes?" Matriarch South's voice had a hint of amusement.

"I borrowed them from the grounds keepers for the temple's garden."

"You are resourceful." Matriarch South's mood changed and she poured two glasses of pink-ish drinks from a tray on the small table between their cushy seats. "If I give you the information what do I get in return?" Her voice was a little playful now.

Aethyta was half joking about offering sex, but she obviously underestimated the power of Matriarch South's drive. "I can stop doing my job and wait for the Reapers to come and wipe us all out."

"Come on, Aethyta. You can do better than that." Teasing and not unfriendly.

"I can either offer to fuck your brains out or blow your brains out with a pistol. That's pretty much all I've got."

"We love you!" The turians seemed to respond to the word "fuck" with their declaration of undying love.

Matriarch South seemed to have finally reached her limit for drug induced adoration. She stood up and opened a small compartment overhead. She took out two syringes and jabbed one in each of the turians without untying their bindings. The turians fell asleep instantly. "Now, we can talk in quiet." The Matriarch in pink sat down again. "The Shadow Broker doesn't work with just anybody, and we can't work with mercenaries. Too many eyes are watching."

"So your contact with the Shadow Broker works in the official and legit channels." This shouldn't surprise Aethyta. The Grand Matriarch had warned her that the Shadow Broker's reach was deep in their ranks.

"Official no, legit yes. We can't use the asari military. It could be viewed as abuse of power." More revealing words from Matriarch South.

"If it's legit…oh, I see. The Spectres." Aethyta saw the light at the end of the tunnel. "Who? Give me a name."

"You know very well I can't do that even if I knew the name. Betraying a Spectre usually means a poison dart at night in bed or a messy shootout at a nightclub. I won't let it trace back to me. You're on your own."

While Aethyta was wracking her brains to gather the names of any asari Spectre she'd read about or heard of, a door in the back of the shuttle opened. A volus bounced out with a saucepan in one hand and a plate in another. He had headphones over his ears ports and as he bounced out of the kitchen, his impressive girth bounced to the beat of music leaking out from his headphones. When he saw the two Matriarchs sitting in their chairs sipping the drinks he designed, he flipped what was in his pan into the plate and put it in Matriarch South's lap. "A new friend of the Thessia Clan! Be right back." He shouted over the loud music in his ears and bounced back into the large kitchen. The door opened again, another saucepan and another plate. This time, he placed the plate in Aethyta's lap. Without waiting for any orders or reaction from either Matriarch, the volus bounced on his way to the kitchen again, humming to the tunes in his ears.

"I appreciate that you didn't harm my cook. His sautéed smoked fish is to die for." Matriarch South took a small bite of the fish on her plate and closed her eyes in full appreciation.

"How could I hurt him? He's so cute! Plus I have a soft spot for voluses." Aethyta took a large bite of the fish. "This is a damn good fish!"

"And you owe me a fuck, Aethyta!" Matriarch South and Aethyta looked at each other and they both looked at the turians. They were still in deep slumber in their hogtied positions.

* * *

The minute the Blue Sabre went through the Mass Relay, it was caught in intense crossfire. Two quarian fighters surrounded by Patrol Fleet ships were firing at a large envoy ship. The intense vibrations of fighter missiles and small canons in close vicinity of the Blue Sabre shook her violently. "Pull away from the pack!" Looking at the display of the forward camera, Aethyta shouted her order. But the pilot had already put the ship on the move. "Open the communications channel." Aethyta ordered again.

"Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, this is the Blue Sabre of the Asari Matriarch Special Task fleet. We request safe passage to your ship and permission to dock with the Tonbay."

A male quarian voice responded. "The Admiral actual is busy. We grant you docking permission, please hold your current position while we're resolving an internal conflict. Stand by." The quarian shut off the communications without waiting for Aethyta's acknowledgement.

"They're giving me orders now?" Aethyta walked quickly to the comm control and put her hands on the shoulders of the specialist. "Can you get their chatter on our comm?"

The specialist hesitated only for a moment. "The codes Cerberus had can get us in."

"Do it." Aethyta stood back and watched the screen again.

The ships from the Patrol Fleet were circling the heavy fighters trying to take their guns and canons out.

"By the name of our home world, stand down! Or we'll order the heavy fleet warships to annihilate both your ships!" The Patrol Fleet demanded.

"You won't destroy us, we're carrying important geth data. We'll destroy the data if you try to take us." The lead rebel ship responded.

"Stop firing at your own homes!" Admiral Raan's voice came on. "Tell me what your demands are, we'll work this out peacefully."

"There is geth hardware on the envoy and the data we carry will activate the hardware. It is against both Council law and quarian law. We'll not let that happen. We'll die first." The same voice from the rebel ship sounded raspy through the speech port.

"What do you propose we do to resolve this?" Raan asked.

"Put the geth hardware through the airlock now! Or we'll take out the envoy and blow ourselves up!"

A few moments later, Raan came on again. "I've asked the envoy ship to gather all geth hardware onboard and shoot it out of their airlock. It'll take some time. Would you stand by?"

"Yes, we'll Admiral." The rebel ship responded immediately and stopped firing.

The docking light turned green as Tonbay docking bay crew went to work to get debarkation equipment ready for the asari warship. Admiral Raan and her staff greeted the asari Matriarch at the docking bay door.

"Matriarch Aethyta, it's been a while." Raan bowed her head, but Aethyta grabbed her hand and gave her a strong handshake.

"I didn't know visiting the Migrant Fleet had become so exciting."

"Family quarrels." Raan led the Matriarch to Tonbay's communications room that was the second largest space after the central commons and garden. The asari commandos with their prisoner waited outside. "When you have a family of 17 million, these quarrels can get pretty testy." Raan indicated for the Matriarch to sit in the chair next to hers.

"What's with geth hardware onboard the envoy? And what's with the talk of activating geth programs?" Aethyta didn't want to hide the fact she listened in on quarians' communications.

"You hacked into our communications systems?" Raan leaned forward in her seat and blinked her eyes a few times behind the mask.

"This is why I came to see you. We captured a Cerberus agent, his ship had your security codes for communications, navigation, combat centers, all of it." Aethyta pointed at the door. "My commandos are guarding him outside. I'll leave him with you."

Raan took a few moments to settle back in her seat. "This is most disturbing news. We'll have to upgrade our security systems for the entire fleet. I appreciate that you brought him and the codes with you."

Aethyta waved her hand. "Your grandfather taught me a few things about combat drones, he was a good quarian. I'm just returning the favor."

Raan took out her RC globe and balanced it in her palm. "This RC was his. He actually used it when he came home from his Citadel business trips. It reminds me where I came from and what I may do in the future."

Aethyta smiled at the memory of the old quarian she called friend. "He was a stubborn son of gun too."

Aethyta's comment brought a small chuckle from the quarian Admiral. "Stubbornness is in our blood, Matriarch. We could have settled many small communities on several habitable planets to stem new population and establish new colonies. But we stick together on these crowded ships, barely maintaining basic life functions. We carry our RC cores close to our hearts. Why? Because we are stubborn. We may have lost our home world but our ancestors' spirits still roam on Rannoch, their images and their voices are with us still. We can't give up the idea of living as our forefathers and foremothers had lived. This idea isn't taught to quarian children, stubbornness comes with our DNA."

Aethyta shook her head. "Yeah, you're a bunch of romantics."

Raan knew Aethyta was one of the very few outsiders that understood the quarians. She heard her grandfather speak of their friendship. "Stubbornness usually stems from romance, doesn't it? We're indeed a bunch of romantics. The very idea of Going Home is something many of us would be happy to die for if it means our children and our children's children can breath the free air of our home world and colonies, to look up at the beauty of Perseus Veil and feel proud to call the small system our home."

"Then you will help me with my work as well because it seems the geth problem you're facing is the first step to understand where the Reapers come from. The ancient machines that recruited the geth." Aethyta found her opportunity.

Raan remained silent for a few moments, and then she told Aethyta. "After the destruction of Sovereign, the Migrant Fleet mobilized every quarian on or near the Citadel to salvage anything they could on the AI and VI that wasn't destroyed."

"Did they find anything?"

"Yes, they did." Raan wanted to be careful with the information she shared. "The geth called the old machine Nazara and had record of it searching for organic partners for over a millennia. But key information was missing: where did Nazara come from? There were some indications that these old machines hid in dark space. We'd been scanning the systems in the Far Rim region and found an anomaly in one of our old colony systems called Dholen. Its sun is erupting prematurely. Some of our scientists suspect it's being manipulated by dark energy. We plan on sending a small team to investigate it."

"Why didn't you warn the Council and get a bigger force to check it out? It's in geth territory, too dangerous for a small quarian team." Aethyta voiced her concern.

Raan shook her head lightly. "We're not the outcasts and pariahs like the batarians in the Council space, but we don't rank too much higher. The Council wouldn't listen to what we have to say. Besides, the quarians don't look at the geth problem as potential Reaper problem, we look at the geth as an enemy standing between us and our home world. The Admiralty board has already decided on this and picked the team leader."

"Who did they pick?"

"Tali'Zorah." Raan let out a small sigh.

"The kid fought with Shepard on the Normandy." Aethyta remembered the stories Wrex had told her about Tali.

"After the Normandy crashed, Tali snuck through geth's defense and visited Rannoch. Some see her as a daredevil; others think she's reckless. Either way, she's the only logical candidate to lead this dangerous mission."

A panicked voice came on the ship's comm. "Admiral Raan, the Heavy Fleet ships are firing at the fighter ships."

Raan stood up immediately. "Who gave the order? It's still Patrol Fleet's responsibility to resolve the issue. The fighters are quarians, not enemies. The Heavy Fleet has no business here. Patch me through Admiral Han'Gerrel, now!"

Moments later Han'Gerrel's voice came on. "Admiral Raan, your inability to control the fighter ships and their pilots led to this action. I'm ordering my heavy frigates to take out the fighters who were shooting at our envoy."

"Wait, we're still in negotiations with them. They're quarians on quarian ships. You can't do that!"

"Watch me! I'll not let terrorist act threaten the Migrant Fleet." A short pause, then he gave the order. "Fire."

Raan brought up a holo projection in the comm room only to watch the two quarian fighter ships explode under heavy fires of two large quarian combat ships. Raan stood silently, her face hiding behind the mask. She looked up so her mask turned into a mirror as she faced the warm glowing light overhead.

Aethyta muttered "That varren's ass!" or something equivalent.

* * *

Nyxeris sat in her chair outside of Liara's office, once again reading the reports of Vido Santiago's failed attempt at both getting the information she paid him for and the bonus she promised him if he killed the pureblood bitch after he pumped out the info. He succeeded in neither and now he was in hiding.

"Imbecile!" Monitoring Liara's calls, Nyxeris learned that the asari commandos had sent people to watch the pureblood's back. This made her job a lot harder, and she had to take extra care to remain hidden. The good news was the Shadow Broker had posted a bounty on the pureblood's head and that added to the amount of credits Nyxeris could promise a hired hand, but the bad news was every bounty hunter who had worked for the Shadow Broker now had a shot at the bitch. In the world of bounty hunters, competitions often posed a bigger threat than the targets. And it'd only be matter of time before the Shadow Broker sent his own agents if things didn't get done. She had to act fast.

Nyxeris had no choice but to hire someone else, an able hand this time. She made certain of it, and even gave her input on the location where the sniper should perch to have the best view.

The door opened, Liara walked out of the office. "Nyxeris, I will have lunch at the Eternity and take care of something at home. Call me if you need me for urgent matters."

Nyxeris put on a big smile. "Have a good lunch." _Enjoy it, bitch. This may be your last meal!_

Liara sat down at one of the tables in the Eternity. Fern Gnor came over immediate with a tall glass on a small tray. "The best energy drink you can find on this side of the Crescent Nebula. I'm Fern Gnor. Good to meet you, Thessia Clan. Can I get you something else to drink? A full course meal? Maybe one of our best rooms? No, you don't need a room. You're here to meet the commandos." He stopped himself and took a deep breath.

Liara had to hide a chuckle. "Are you nervous, Fern Gnor?"

"Yes, very nervous. Matriarch Aethyta said to provide anything you need. I want to impress her."

"Why?"

"She's my one and only love." Fern looked up at Liara. Even through the suit and the funny round peek holes, Liara could tell that he was dead serious.

"Does she feel the same way?" Liara smiled.

"She will one day! I know she will. True love always prevails. I have much hope." His breathing became rapid trying to convince Liara.

"Do you not prefer the females of your own clan?" Liara tried the drink Fern offered and found it very palatable.

"Not particularly. When the gas goes stale in these suits, female's scent is offensive to me. On Irune, perhaps when they don't wear suits. Even then, they're too short. I want to look up at my mate to admire her strength and her eyes. My love has the most beautiful eyes."

"I wish you luck, Fern!" Liara finished her drink.

"When it's convenient, you'll put in a good word for me, won't you? You two must be close. She told me to take good care of you. If you need anything, I mean anything, you call me." Liara's promise made the volus very happy.

Liara stood up when she saw two asari commandos enter the Eternity. Both Fin 2 and G.G. had changed into their light armor to not attract attention in this semi covert opt. Fin 2 scanned the room as G.G. greeted Liara.

"We'd like to add some additional security measures in your apartment. Your office is well monitored now that G.G. has installed all her surveillance gear and the reinforced glass windows. Shall we?" Fin 2 stepped aside and let Liara lead the way to the shuttle port.

Inside Liara's spacious apartment, Fin 2 followed Liara upstairs while G.G. was installing security software to Liara's computer system. Fin 2 wanted to take an inventory on what needed to be done. A large bed sat directly under the ventilation systems with an outlet directly above. Fin 2 made a note in her omni-tool to install motion sensors and surveillance cameras in the vents. A picture frame displayed the famous ship sat on the small nightstand. Fin 2 noted to have G.G. install a DNA security code to store urgent messages. A large aquarium could hide waterproof cameras.

When Fin 2 was satisfied with the walkthrough upstairs, she motioned Liara to show her downstairs. Looking at the sofa by the windows, Fin 2 pointed at the space by the glass cage with a burned suit of armor. "I would like you to move the sofa away from the windows to this location. We'll also need to replace the windows with reinforced glass like we did with your office."

Liara walked toward the sofa, eyeing the size. In the corner of her eye, she saw Fin 2's body flying in the air before hearing her warning. "Sniper!" The sound of a powerful bullet hitting the large glass and shattering it came almost immediately after the warning.

G.G. ducked down first, then she hunched against the wall, stepping on a thick layer of broken glass. She took out her scope and quickly scanned the buildings in view without exposing her head. "Northwest corner, 26th floor has the only open window. That's our shooter! Fin 2, we've got to go now if we want to catch him!"

G.G.'s adrenaline calmed down, and she noticed no movement behind the table that was flipped by Fin 2 when she dove for Liara. G.G. crawled to the heavy table that blocked her view. Without standing up, G.G. used her biotics to move the table aside. Both of her companions lay still on the floor, Fin 2 on top of Liara. Blood covered their bodies and spilled on the floor. G.G.'s eyes went wide.

"Liara!"

"Alia!"

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: An Ardat-Yakshi Among Us


	9. Chapter 9 An Ardat-Yakshi Among Us

**Second Life**

**Chapter Nine – An Ardat-Yakshi Among Us**

"Alia!"

Liara couldn't move because the commando's body was fully draped over her. "Fin 2!" Liara raised her head and she put her hand on a small bump on the side of her head. Fin 2 had crushed into her with force and knocked Liara out. As her head cleared, G.G.'s voice came into focus.

"Alia!" G.G. took hold of Fin 2's shoulders and slowly rolled her over. With the weight gone, Liara sat up quickly and helped G.G. check on Fin 2. The bullet had ripped through Fin 2's side but didn't stop there and it hit the wall behind them. G.G. knew that they got lucky because the sniper had set up the shot to penetrate the glass and not to stop until it hit secondary hard object then to detonate itself and rupture everything around it. They got lucky because the bullet found the wall as its final and true target, which meant it didn't hit any bones on Fin 2's body. Looking at the giant hole on the wall, G.G. shuddered.

"Sit her up." Liara used her biotics to put the flipped table between them and the window. "I will get my med-kit."

"Don't stand up! Crawl." G.G. said nervously to Liara as she sat on the floor and supported Fin 2 on her shoulder.

Fin 2's side was soaked in blood and there was blood on her lips. G.G. put a hand on Fin 2's wound where blood was pouring out. "Alia, can you hear me?" G.G. shook Fin 2's shoulder. "Alia, come on! Open your eyes. Don't do this to me!" Fin 2's head only bobbed slightly when G.G. shook her, and then it landed on G.G.'s shoulder limply.

Liara crawled into the kitchen and fetched the med-kit from a cabinet. She took out scissors and cut open Fin 2's light armor. The bullet tore through the side, and judging from the blood on her lips, her lung might have been nipped as well.

"She's lost a lot of blood." Liara quickly covered the wound with med-gel and took out a syringe and gave Fin 2 a shot. "This will make her breathing easier." Liara thanked Pierce silently for teaching her the basic field medic skills. After Shepard was wounded on Virmire, Liara wanted to make sure she knew how to help the soldier if they ran into trouble again. Pierce had trained both Liara and Tali for two weeks on battlefield first aid and medicine.

"What do we do now? The Blue Sabre is still on a mission. The sniper is still out there. We don't know anybody here we can trust!" G.G. had a slight panicked tone in her voice.

Liara thought for a moment. "Yes, we do." She got on her communications and dialed a number. "Fern Gnor. This is Liara T'Soni. We met earlier."

"Yes, the friend of my love. It's good to hear from you. You talked to my beloved?" Fern Gnor's voice was filled with excitement.

"I need your assistance urgently. Do you know a good hospital? A friend of mine has been shot."

"Why, yes! My second cousin just opened that new hospital at the edge of the town. They have great doctors, salarian doctors. Can't trust the others, only salarian doctors…"

"Fern, can you take us there? I will send you my location. Can you meet me on the roof? We have a shuttle that can take all of us."

"Of course, right away."

"We have to move to the roof and wait for Fern to take us to the hospital." Liara and G.G. carried Fin 2 into the elevator. The med-gel had stemmed the bleeding temporarily and the shot Liara gave her indeed helped. Fin 2 coughed and slowly she opened her eyes.

"Alia, we're getting you to a hospital." G.G. supported Fin 2's shoulders.

Fin 2 looked at Liara and winced as she breathed the words out. "You need…to get to the building. Record everything." She turned to G.G., "Give her the full scanner." She coughed.

G.G. tightened her hold on Fin 2, and used her free hand to take out a scope like scanner from her back pocket. G.G. instructed Liara, "It telescopes. Each extension scans different things, so pull it once and scan, then pull it again and scan again, until it's fully extended. You'll have full thermal, residue, prints, particle composition and ultrasound scans recorded in the built-in chip. Bring it back to me. I can make full analysis when I get back on the Blue Sabre."

"Go now." Fin 2 ordered weakly. The elevator jolted to stop, Fin 2 muffled a cry of pain. G.G. checked her wound. It started bleeding again. Fin 2 searched for G.G.'s hand and grabbed it. "Please don't let go of me." She whispered.

"I won't. I promise." G.G. squeezed Fin 2's hand. Her voice was shaky. "And you promise me you'll stay with me, Alia. If you don't, I'll punch you again. You don't want me to punch you again, do you?"

Fin 2 tried to laugh but coughed instead. G.G.'s hand squeezed her tighter. Watching the commando struggling to breath, anger filled Liara. She wanted to shred the person who did this into pieces, but she knew that person was just a tool, a hired hand. The real enemy was the Shadow Broker. He would pay for this!

As soon as Fern's taxi landed, Liara ran to the car. Without a word, she grabbed the volus and hurried him into the commando's shuttle where G.G. sat on the floor holding Fin 2 who had passed out again.

"No! My friends from Thessia Clan! What happened?" Fern Gnor breathed loudly through his breather.

"Fern, no time to talk. You must take the commando to the hospital and get her the best surgeon. Can you do that for me?" Liara led the volus to the cockpit.

"Yes, I've already called my cousin. His people are standing by. He owes me two shuttles-full of credit chits. I'm giving him a pass on one of them for this. He won't mishandle it. Trust me." The volus climbed into the pilot's seat and powered up the shuttle. He looked back at Liara, "You're not coming?"

"I will come by later. I have something urgent to take care of."

"Leave it to me. Oh, when it's convenient…"

"I will put very glowing words for you to the Matriarch, Fern." Liara patted the volus on his shoulder to assure him.

The volus shouted through his breather, "I know a short cut. We'll get there in no time!"

Liara moved back to G.G. and Fin 2. "I will come as soon as I finish the scan!" She touched Fin 2's face and squeezed G.G.'s shoulder before jumping out of the shuttle and shut the door.

"Keep your head down, Liara!" G.G. shouted over the shuttle's engine.

Liara stood outside the locked room on the 26th floor in the building G.G. indicated. She put a disc on the door lock and started hacking. The door opened to an apartment that didn't look too different from her own, only much smaller. The large bed upstairs and all the big furniture on the first floor were covered with thin plastic. It seemed the owner had not lived here in a while. Large windows surrounded half of the downstairs living room, and one of the windows was still propped open. Someone had hacked the alarm before hand so the opening of the door and the window didn't trigger an alert. The sniper or the person who hired the sniper must be local or incredibly connected. They knew this place was unoccupied and they knew which security company provided burglary watch services to hack into.

The sniper had removed the plastic cover on a large and heavy dinning table and moved it near the window. It'd take two strong people to move the heavy table or someone with strong biotics power. A chair was placed on top of the table. Liara first did a full scan of the apartment while standing by the door, then a full scan near the window. She stepped on the table and sat in the chair. Looking through the scanning scope, Liara could see every inch of her apartment. "Goddess!" She took in a sharp breath.

Fern Gnor had followed through on his promise. Fin 2's surgery went very well, and she was now stable and resting. G.G. had set a rendezvous point with the Blue Sabre and she was taking Fin 2 back to the ship where the asari doctors onboard could supervise the recovery.

"She will be okay, G.G." Liara glanced at Fin 2 who was lying on a padded gurney that had two metal arms with drip bags hanging on them.

"I know. She's tough." G.G. took the scans from Liara and gave Liara her stash of personal security programs to install on her omni-tool and her home. She reminded Liara to install bulletproof glass before going back to her apartment.

Just outside the hospital compound, Liara waved off the asari commando's shuttle. The hospital was indeed at the edge of the town where she could see the undeveloped land outside the city limit. The early winter breeze brought a sudden chill to Liara as she stood alone on the remote shuttle port. She looked up at distant hills that were rapidly disappearing behind a greyish veil when dusk settled in. Liara remembered another place with small hills just like these.

It was on Earth and she was with Shepard.

Shepard had rented a place outside Vancouver after accepting yet another medal from the Alliance for defeating Saren, this time it was from Rear Admiral Mikhailovich who had suddenly found appreciation for the Normandy and her commander. They had traveled all day to get to the remote cabin where they'd spend the weekend, but they took their time. Small streams running by windy roads carried the penetrating chill from the first frost, and the couple had stopped by one of them to test the temperature of the natural spring water.

"We are lost!" Liara sat in the skycar that had circled the same roads several times.

"No, we're not." Shepard parked the skycar off the road and took Liara's hand and pointed at a small hill. "The place is just behind that hill, I can feel it!" Shepard grabbed their duffle bag and started running toward the hill, dragging Liara behind her.

Steam rose on Shepard's head when they reached the top of the hill, and they were both breathless from the uphill dash. Another path snaked toward the distance, and vaguely they could see a small gate at the end and more flat land laid beyond.

"We are lost!" Liara repeated her earlier observation.

"No, we're not!" Shepard pointed at the gate, "See that gate and the large tree behind it? The place is just beyond that giant tree."

"Shepard, they told us there was a drive way right up to the front door. This is a dead end." Liara was trying to be reasonable.

"No, it's not. Come on, let's check it out. You'll see. The place is right behind there. I can feel it." Shepard took Liara's hand again and was ready to dash down the hill.

Liara stood her ground this time. "Why would you follow a path that leads to nowhere?"

"It's like searching for meaning where there is none." Shepard smirked.

"Are you making fun of me, Shepard?" Liara huffed, "You just will not admit we are lost."

Shepard let go of Liara's hand and she took off running down the hill, her duffle bounced wildly on her butt. Liara smiled at the comical sight and followed her lover.

By the locked gate, the couple stared at the flat land that extended beyond their eyes could see. The sun was setting, and array of orange red lights cascaded on the tall grass that had turned golden yellow.

"Shepard, this is beautiful." Liara took a deep breath and searched for Shepard's hands.

Shepard took Liara's hands and felt her cold fingers. She put Liara's fingers to her lips and blew at them with hot air. When that wasn't working, she unzipped her jacket and put Liara's hands inside. The touch of Shepard's skin warmed Liara in more ways than one. Holding the soft flesh in her hands, Liara touched Shepard's lips with her own.

Shepard's lips were cold from the early winter air at nightfall. The coolness of her lips felt like the first touch of spring water. Liara licked her own lips to make them warm and then she took Shepard's lips in hers.

The sun was setting slower now. Looking at the orange light dancing in Liara's eyes, Shepard licked her own lips, tasting the delicious taste Liara's lips left there.

"We're completely lost." Shepard's mouth curled up, and she looked happy in sweet surrender.

Liara laughed and threw her head back. Faint stars appeared in the sky as the sun trekked beyond the horizon. Staring at the stars defined by the shapes of the tree branches above their heads, Liara breathed out.

"Not any more." Liara had found exactly where she wanted to be.

Presently, the lights from Nos Astra were now blinding Liara's sight. The distant hills were hidden in complete darkness. Even though Liara knew the hills were still standing there, she still mourned the sense of loss lingered in her heart.

"Shepard, when are you coming back? I am lost without you."

* * *

G.G. walked through the infirmary door on the Blue Sabre to find all three Fins, Gauze and Onyx standing by Fin 2's bed. She hesitated by the door for a moment and she turned to leave. She had brought Fin 2's favorite candy for which she'd bribed the supply officer with a new accounting program. She knew Fin 2 loved it but she didn't dare to show the small treat hidden inside of her pants' pocket now that her squad leader and all three Fins were watching her.

Onyx called out, "G.G., I have a task for you." She beckoned for the young commando to come closer. "Fin 2 needs to take an urgent call from Commander Bellana. I need you to escort her to the call."

Gauze handed G.G. a small oxygen canister. "She shouldn't be out of bed yet. Her lung is still healing. Give her this if she has trouble breathing." Gauze didn't hide her disapproval of the decision to let Fin 2 move about.

Onyx turned quickly and gave Fin 2 a brief nod. She waved her hand, and all three Fins and Gauzed followed her out. Gauze turned her head and gave Fin 2 another worried look.

Fin 2 stood next to the infirmary bed trying to put her arm into a sling that helped take the weight of her arm from her side, but she was having trouble. G.G. walked over and helped her carefully put the strap over her neck and gently put her bent arm into the hard plastic holder.

"What's so urgent about this call? Why can't Onyx or Fin 1 take it?" G.G. protested.

"The order came from way above Onyx." Fin 2 took a few deep breaths; struggling with the sling had made her breaths short.

The jaunt between the infirmary and the QEC room was unusually long and agonizing. Fin 2 gave G.G. a smile before stepping into the ring and she took off her sling. G.G. was about to protest when the QEC platform lit up and an asari commando with Commander's bar on her uniform collar came to view. Fin 2 reflexively straightened her back and walked into the QEC circle.

"Commander! Fin 2 report to duty, ma'am!" Fin 2 put her arms behind her back and stood at attention.

The asari across the quantum waves didn't answer immediately. She inspected Fin 2 up and down as if she was trying to find flaws in the commando's stance. "Lieutenant Kurin informed me your mission on Illium was almost botched and you got yourself shot in the process. Is this true?"

"Yes, ma'am. As a sniper, I should have noticed the vulnerabilities of the building and checked for sniper activities in the surrounding buildings before exposing anyone." Fin 2 recited the sniper training manual. She could hear G.G.'s uneven breathing and prayed that her young friend listened to her warning before the call: "No matter what happens, don't butt in."

The asari Commander crossed her arms in front of her and paced in her QEC platform. "The mission report you submitted shows this was your fault." She spoke slowly. Even via the QEC, her voice was deep and throaty.

Fin 2's lips tightened and her breathing rapid. "Yes, ma'am."

"And you wish to have this black mark on your record?" The Commander chided.

"Why not?" Fin 2 sounded angry. "Everything else is my fault, why not this?"

"Graf's death wasn't your fault!" The Commander took a deep breath and settled herself down. "It was nobody's fault. She died in the line of duty, a hero."

"Tell her that! Oh, wait. You can't, cause she's dead! She never wanted to be a commando and she certainly didn't want to die a hero!" Fin 2 struggled with her breathing as she suppressed a cough.

The Commander's face hardened and she stared at Fin 2 with such intensity that it would have buckled a lesser soldier. But Fin 2 stood at attention, unmoving and stared straight at nothing. The Commander relaxed her arms and her voice softened. "I sent you two invitations to visit with me when we docked at the Citadel. Do you wish that I order you to come and see me?"

Fin 2 kept her silence.

"Look, your father's memorial anniversary is coming up, I thought we could…"

"I'll go by myself as I did the last five years." Fin 2 cut the Commander off.

"Very well. You're dismissed." The Commander cut the QEC promptly.

Fin 2 had no strength left to move her legs. As the light in the QEC room turned on automatically when the call ended, she stood in silence, her features immobile. G.G., who had been watching the call a few paces away, walked over and put the small breathing mask from the handheld oxygen canister on Fin 2's mouth.

"Breathe." G.G. said softly. Waiting for Fin 2 to take a few puffs, G.G. could feel Fin 2's body shaking slightly. "You want me to take you back to the infirmary?"

"Can we…just sit down for a bit?" Fin 2 asked weakly. G.G. put the small canister away and led Fin 2 slowly down the short set of stairs from the QEC platform and helped her sit on one of the steps. G.G. squatted next to her and helped put the sling back on to alleviate the weight of her arm, and then she sat down next to Fin 2 on the other side.

Fin 2 could feel the heat in her eyes and the swell of tears that threatened. She bit her bottom lip and stopped her thoughts from touching the agony that had been lurking and waiting to swallow her whole. She couldn't let that happen, and she wouldn't shed tears in front of her young friend, or in front of anybody for that matter. She was from a family of tough commandos and she chose to play the part, she loved to play the part, unlike her dead sister.

"In case you haven't figured it out, that was my mother." Fin 2's voice was tight.

Even though she showed no pain on her face, G.G. knew Fin 2 was in agony and not all of it came from her wound. She wanted to hold her friend in her arms and give her anything she needed, but the steely expression and the distant stare from the sniper kept the young asari at bay.

"Who's Graf?" G.G. hesitated but decided to ask.

"My sister." _Why do I always contrive to be in this position? To explain why I'm the one who's alive instead of Graf?_ It's been five years since Graf's death, and she had only talked with her mother twice regarding the matter and each time they managed to blame each other: she blamed her mother for forcing Graf into the military and the Commander blamed her for not taking care of her younger sister. Fin 2 had learned to put up a steel wall when it came to discussing her sister's death, but she knew she was falling piecemeal inside and hadn't found a way to stop it.

G.G. had never seen Fin 2 so miserable and she felt powerless to help. Suddenly she remembered why she went to see Fin 2 in the first place and she unzipped the side pocket on her pants and produced a small bundle of candy. "I got these for you. I had to pay a bribe for them."

Fin 2 stared at G.G.'s sparkly eyes that looked so much like Graf's and remembered how Graf used to sneak the same candy to her at night when she pulled all-nighters studying at the flight school on the military base they lived on with their mother. When her mother was on missions, which was often, she practically raised Graf. As they moved from one military base to another, Graf was all she had after their turian father died.

Looking at G.G.'s open palm and the same way she presented candy with a big and proud smile, Fin 2 couldn't stop her tears anymore. She grabbed the candy from G.G.'s hand and wrapped her free arm tightly around G.G.'s neck and let herself sob into the warmth and comfort of her friend's arms.

"She saw beauty in the ugliest things and she saw colors nobody else could see. She had such sparkly eyes." So much like G.G.'s. "She should have been a painter."

G.G. held Fin 2's shoulders and listened silently.

"She was assigned to the support squad, putting up barriers and helping the wounded. The incendiary round that hit me ripped through my leg and caused a secondary burn that was so painful I screamed even after they treated it with medi-gel when they took me off the frontline. Graf was with me the whole time before and after the surgery. But the next day she wasn't there. She volunteered to join the frontline and...she was killed."

"It wasn't your fault, Alia."

"If only I hadn't screamed like a baby!" Fin 2 shouted into G.G.'s shoulder. "I lost my sister and mother on that day."

"She couldn't have blamed you for that!" G.G. held Fin 2's shoulders even tighter.

"She does and I do too."

G.G. moved back a little and tilted Fin 2's teary face with her palm. "You can't live life like that. It'll destroy you. You need to talk to her." G.G. sighed. _At least you still could talk to her whenever you wanted._

Fin 2 let G.G. wipe the tears off her face. Somehow G.G.'s frown made her heart skip a beat. It had been so long since Fin 2 talked about Graf, and it made her feel better to tell someone and to speak her sister's name out loud again. Seeing her trouble was making G.G.'s face turn lugubrious and her lips tighten, Fin 2 closed her eyes and kissed G.G.'s full lips.

G.G. jumped away from the steps they were sitting on quickly. "No, we can't do that!" Her movement was so sudden that Fin 2 tipped over. The injured commando held her body with her free arm and winced. G.G. moved back quickly and slid her hand under Fin 2's arm. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." She sat Fin 2 back up carefully without looking at her face. "I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing and tell me why we can't." Fin 2's voice was demanding.

"I…I just can't. We can be friends but I can't let you, I'm not, oh, goddess!" G.G. stopped talking. She could feel the implant pulsing strongly on the back of her neck. It was working hard to suppress her urge and it was generating so much heat that G.G. could feel it burning a little. She shut her eyes and swallowed. "I should take you back to the infirmary."

Fin 2 shook free G.G.'s hand holding her arm. "Not before you tell me why we can't. Do you not feel the same way about me?"

"Please, Alia. I just can't and I can't tell you why. Okay?" G.G.'s tears came.

Fin 2 pushed herself up on her shaky legs. But before she could open her mouth, the ship's comm called for the younger commando.

"G.G., the Matriarch wants you to get on the comm console in the QEC to clear up a signal. We're receiving a hail from an asari merchant ship that's under attack by two batarians ships. The attackers are scrambling the hail signal, I'm patching it through to you now."

The communications console lit up behind the two commandos. G.G. immediately launched a few programs to clear up the statics in the signal. A few moments later, a voice became full and solid.

"I am a Justicar. I would like to request your assistant. We're under attack."

G.G. tapped on the console again, "Matriarch, the channel is clear."

Aethyta's voice came on, "This is the Blue Sabre. Hold tight. We'll be within range shortly."

The other voice responded. "I appreciate your assistant. We'll hold until your arrival."

As soon as the Blue Sabre took out the batarian ships and rescued the asari merchant vessel, the Justicar requested permission to board the asari warship. Aethyta took Onyx, G.G. and two other commandos to meet the Justicar at the shuttle bay.

Aethyta greeted their guest, "I'm Matriarch Aethyta. We'll provide any assistant you might require."

The small and slender Justicar bowed her head in a very formal asari traditional greeting. "I'm Samara. I appreciate your rescue of the merchant ship. The batarians were chasing me. I would not have forgiven myself if innocents got hurt on my behalf. Thank you, Matriarch."

"Slavers?" Aethyta pointed the way and let Samara walk next to her.

"Indeed. I destroyed their operation while waiting for suitable transportation to Illium. Their friends wanted revenge." The Justicar recounted her adventure coolly.

"So you're on a mission to hunt slavers?"

"No, I'm on a mission to hunt down an Ardat-Yakshi." Samara replied simply.

Nobody noticed G.G. had stopped walking with the group. Her first instinct was to run, but she was on a ship and had nowhere to run. Her second instinct was to hide. She was good at hiding. Her mother hid her for most of her youth, and she hid herself after she left her mother. She remained hidden until she got her hands on the implant at the base of her neck that made her life normal again.

_How did this Justicar track me down? How did she find out I'm an Ardat-Yakshi?_

* * *

The recent development with the Shadow Broker had filled Liara with misgivings, but she forbade herself to dwell on the power she was to contend with and focused on how to achieve her goal. _What would Shepard do?_ Find allies and gather information. When Shepard was trying to track down Saren and save Benezia, she had mobilized all she trusted to lead her on the right track.

"Nyxeris, we must find the base of the Shadow Broker and strike him where he hides. Put a word out to our past clients who owe us favors, we need to get any information we can on the Shadow Broker. I'll make some calls from home." Liara hurriedly gathered her pistol and a small disc, and she turned on the personal locator scrambler G.G. had given her that not only helped hide her presence on generic trackers but also alerted her if anyone was tracking. Before the Blue Sabre destroyed the small ship that followed her and Shepard's body to the Lazarus Research Station, Liara used Cerberus jamming and hacking software and downloaded the Shadow Broker agents' navigation systems and landing and docking codes. She must comb through the data and track down every lead. Shepard once said to her "You helped me track down Saren when nobody knew how", Liara knew the answer laid somewhere. She only had to adjust her eyes and tune her ears to see and hear it.

As she made her way to the taxi port, Liara's mind turned to her enemy once again. The continuing thought of what the Shadow Broker looked like occupied Liara's mind. _Is he a salarian, calculating and resourceful? Or a krogan, ruthless and unrelenting? Perhaps a turian? And what is his name?_

No, no names. He was the Shadow Broker. That was good enough a name to serve as an unwelcome reminder whom Liara had to kill, and who she had to become, a killer. She ran through the methods of killing the Shadow Broker in her imagined confrontation. When she finally met him, whether be on a ship or in a dark cave, it would be their final confrontation, it would be a beautiful thing to watch. Liara promised herself: it'd be a spectacular death, he'd earned it. Yet the image of the Shadow Broker crumbling into a small pile of soot under her crushing biotics sent chills through the asari's spine.

_What would Shepard say if she were here watching me plot the death of my archenemy, the death of a sentient being?_

It didn't matter what Shepard would say because she wasn't here. Liara couldn't afford to worry about what a dead person would say about her actions because she had to live. She had to stop the one who was trying to hurt people around her and those who were protecting her. It wasn't her choice to live but Shepard's. Shepard ordered her to get into an escape pod and Shepard chose to remain behind. It was easy to make choices in life; it was the consequences of those choices that haunt us to no end. The only choice Liara had at this moment was to live and to seek redemption!

_Can I truly redeem myself for abandoning the love of my life? Will I ever be whole again?_

It was a thought full of mournful self-pity. Liara restored herself with a reminder: the Collectors were still out there and the Shadow Broker agents were just around the corner. They were coming regardless of whether Shepard was here or not, regardless of whether she would come back or not. Liara had to toughen herself up and get to work.

A small vibration jolted Liara's wrist and brought her out of her reflection. She took a quick glance at her palm that displayed the alert from her personal locator scrambler. Someone was tracking her. Liara quickly got into a taxi and made a few unusual turns to expose the one who was tracking her.

G.G. had taught her one thing; when you were being tracked try to turn the tables on them, hunters hated to be hunted. The best way to throw someone off their tracks when they were following you was to let them know that you could get to them instead. Liara switched her scrambler to a new frequency after sending a ping of feedback on the old one. This would jolt the tracker's device and then her signal would disappear from it.

Smiling, Liara made a turn into a quiet alley where she knew her way around. She timed her jump on to a ledge from her taxi and let the skycar continue on its tracks. She stood on the ledge above the alley, turned her scrambler back on the old frequency and waited for the tracker to arrive.

A figure in a red veil came into view. As quickly as the figure appeared, it disappeared just as quickly.

Cloaking, huh? Liara tapped on her omni-tool again. G.G.'s anti cloaking wave pulsed from her wrist and revealed the hidden figure and its position on the vector map. Liara took action. She jumped down from the ledge, biotics glowing in her hand. But before she could throw her power at the hidden target, the figure moved at lightning speed and grabbed onto Liara's wrist. The tracker's own hand had a glowing energy orb. Liara smirked as she pressed a dagger next to the tracker's neck, "You had better tell me why you are following me, or I will jam this Dagger of Varren's Tooth into your neck."

The tracker let go of Liara's hand. The red veil that draped along her entire body obscured her eyes and half of her face. "Relax. If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already. In fact, you wouldn't even see me coming."

"Yet, I still have a knife at your neck." Liara didn't lower her hand that was still holding the stranger at knifepoint.

The veiled figure put both hands up and stepped one pace back. She picked up the edge of the long fabric that had been shielding her body and flipped it over her head and whirled it into a long sash and tied it to her waist in one fluid move. A slender asari stood in dim light, her red armor matching the red veil.

"You got me because I let you. You can call me Nightshade. I'm not here to harm you." The asari opened her hands and faced her palms to Liara to show she meant indeed no harm to the one who was still pointing a knife at her.

"Then why are you tracking me?"

"Because you are the last person who saw my fiancée alive."

"Who is your fiancée?"

"Feron."

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: The SSV Orizaba


	10. Chapter 10 The SSV Orizaba

**Second Life**

**Chapter Ten – The SSV Orizaba**

Hannah had had very little sleep since she arrived on her new ship. The Orizaba was a fine ship with fine officers, but her new captain was restless. There were always priorities on a dreadnaught, ship's upgrades, personnel changes and lately, human colonies being attacked by unknown forces. But Hannah could handle all that. Having served as the XO on the Kilimanjaro, she'd practically run that ship. Organization and delegation. But one thing that kept her up at night, one thing that she couldn't hand to her XO or anyone under her command was her daughter's death.

Hannah had argued with Admiral Hackett before she took command of the Orizaba. "You said there were looters and savage ships that combed the spot where the Normandy was destroyed. Is it possible that they recovered her or rescued her? Perhaps the ship that attacked the Normandy has her?"

Admiral Hackett had called Hannah to the Arcturus Station to offer her an Admiral star. "Anything is possible, but it's highly unlikely. When the Alliance rescue team got there, the ship's data recorder was missing along with a few other things. But we rescued all the survivors and those who didn't make it to the escape pods died on the ship and the ship crashed on Alchera. Nobody would have survived the crash if they didn't die onboard."

"The Normandy's pilot said he saw her getting spaced. So she didn't crash with the ship, her suit could protect her for a period of time until someone got to her."

"Hannah, this is all speculation."

"It's not speculation when it's your daughter's life at stake!" Hannah's voice came out louder than she intended, but Hackett put a hand on her shoulder.

"Look, I want you to work closer with me. I'd asked you back on the Citadel before Sovereign's attack to consider a rear admiral position working closely at my side. I do hope that I've given you plenty of time to think it over. What do you say?"

"I might have said yes before…before this happened, Steven. But not now, not when she's still out there, alone, without her closest friends or her family. Give me a ship. I'll feel better being out there, keeping my eyes and ears close to what's going on. Please, do this for me." Hannah convinced Hackett this was the right thing for her to do.

Despite her belief that Shepard was still out there, Hannah attended her daughter's military service given by the Alliance. She did it to please the others but she told herself to hold on to hope even at the most desperate moments. She had strengthened herself with the thought of how comical this would be if one day she'd run into her daughter on a remote planet fighting an unknown enemy force. Shepard had done it before, undercover for N7 missions for long periods of time, only to emerge with tales of victories and more medals for Hannah's collection. Hannah thought she had prepared her psyche but nothing prepared Hannah for Shepard's friends.

Hannah had met everyone at the hospital after Shepard was injured in the Battle of the Citadel, so she knew their names at the funeral. Garrus was the first to speak to her after the service. "I loved her."

_What? How many lovers did my daughter have?_

"Like a sister. I would have gone to hell and back with her and for her." The turian offered his hand.

"I loved her too." It was the quarian's turn. "She was more than a sister to me. She was my mentor, my advocate and most of all, she was my best friend."

Even the krogan with his expressionless face offered, "I'm proud to call Shepard my clan and my Battlemaster. If you know the krogans, you'll know we don't give our honor and loyalty easily. But most of all, Shepard was my friend. When I find out who did this, I'll rip their hearts out and offer them to you."

But the one person Hannah thought her daughter loved the most didn't come to her service. And somehow she saw it as another sign of hope. Even if Liara was deep in grief, she still wouldn't leave Shepard unmourned and unhonored. The asari knew something nobody else did, Hannah was convinced of that. A mother's instinct wouldn't be that off and a mother's love can find optimism in the tiniest corners.

Hannah knew the risks both she and her daughter faced, it was all part and parcel of being an Alliance officer and Alliance family. But ever since the existence of the Reapers came to light, what was possible seemed inevitable. Every time they said goodbye, she knew it could be the last. And when that thought came, Hannah felt a small piece of her died inside. But each time it was renewed when she saw her daughter again, or took a call from her or even saw her on the news. She felt the joy of resurrection as deeply as she felt death itself, like nature intended it to be, dead cells, new skin. Death was only the beginning when resurrection waited for you at the other end. Shepard was always running late for one reason or another when mother and daughter met for drinks or meals, but Hannah was always ravished with excitement and anticipation while waiting for her daughter to appear. Hannah felt that excitement and anticipation even now. She didn't understand why but she couldn't ignore it.

She must get in touch with Liara!

Her XO's voice came on the comm. "Captain, sorry to cut your rack time short, but we've just come within range of New Saigon's communications tower and they had released their distress beacons. The first few were from the colonists saying they were under attack, and then they went quiet. The last call was from a squad of Marines sent to investigate and they were asking for back up because they ran into some looters."

Damn! Another human colony was attacked! These mysterious attacks and the mysterious ship that attacked Normandy had been troubling Hannah. She couldn't compose a theory as there was little evidence left for anyone to collect after these attacks, but in her gut, she knew they were somehow connected. Hannah put on her uniform. "Are the Marines still on the surface?"

The XO's answered. "Yes, ma'am. We just communicated with their leader, Lieutenant Ashley Williams, they're about to launch an attack on the looters."

Hannah's hands shook a little as she buttoned her shirt. _Is this the same Ashley Williams who served with her daughter on the Normandy?_

"Assemble the Marines and launch the gunships. We need to get down there and help them!" Hannah ordered. "I want to see who did this!"

* * *

Ashley Williams grunted as she moved her heavy boots in the mud. It had been raining ever since they got here, she and her squad of Marines who were crazy enough to follow her this past year and a half.

She was assigned to several posts on several ships since the destruction of the Normandy, but she didn't stay in any of them long enough to unpack her weapon mods locker. She didn't fit in anywhere, in her own Marine Corps, Ashley felt displaced. She only decked her superior officer once this time around but eventually Admiral Hackett gave her a squad and slapped Lieutenant's bars on her uniform and sent her on "special tasks" that required an experienced Marine, especially one that believed in the threat of the impending invasion of the ancient machines.

Combat boots were not designed to walk in jungles, as Ashley whose foot got stuck on a ball of tree roots found out the hard way. She cursed. "God damn it!" She grabbed on to a branch trying to pull her foot out of the trap, but the green moss on dark boughs made the branches slippery. She cursed again. Charlie came over and dragged her out of the muddy tangle. "Thanks, Charlie! Damn roots!"

As they crested a hill, the sprawling development on the flat land came into view. Ashley looked through her scope but saw no movement. She handed the scope to Charlie, "What do you see?" Charlie had been injured on the Normandy during the attack while he was trying to hold the door open to the wing that housed escape pods. He was assigned to a ground unit after the tour on the Normandy but when Ashley was given a command, she recruited Charlie immediately. In fact, most of her squad came from what was left of the old Normandy attachment. Ashley was happy to have this part of her family back. Shepard had given Kaidan's spare dog tags to her and she had given one of them to Charlie.

"No movement and no sign of firefight." Charlie read what he saw through the scope.

"Did you notice those strange vehicles by the main plaza?" Ashley pointed.

"Yes, must be the looters. But where are the colonists?"

Ashley split the squad and they approached the development in two flanks and hoped to corner the looters at the base of the hill. A wooden gate with thick posts and a large wooden lattice above marked the entrance. New Saigon looked like no other colony Ashley had seen before. The colonists must have cleared this piece of flat land of trees and bushes and used wood in conjunction with the usual metal structures that could withstand bad weather and wear and tear much longer. There must be a carpenter among the colonists, Ashley thought. Even some of the front doors of the buildings had wooden frames and some houses had wooden fences. Wreaths made with fallen twigs in fall colors hung on many doors and fences, the colonists must have been preparing for some kind of celebration.

The rain had slowed down to a drizzle. Combing the quiet streets, Ashley was reminded of some old frontier towns in old vids. What happened here? Had raiders rode in with murder in their hearts and guns ablaze? Where did they dump the bodies and did they not spill any blood? A wooden rocking horse in bright red and blue stood in front of the building near the center of the town. "Come on, find me those who did this!" Ashley pounded her fist on a fence post. Her squad had searched everywhere, but there were no signs of any living or dead colonists.

A large building stood in the center of the town, wooden lattice rose as high as the roof and a large wooden portcullis lying on the ground. Five heavily armed and armored shuttles, all painted in black, parked outside. Ashley pointed the first shuttle with two fingers. Two Marines went up to the pilot and took him out silently with a knife. After they took out all the shuttle pilots except the last one and disabled the engines, Ashley pointed a gun at the lookout, "All your friends are dead back there, if you don't tell me everything I want to know, I will splatter your brains on that side of the shuttle. What are you doing here?"

The lookout didn't dare to move but his eyes scanned the Marines in thick armor holding big guns around him. "A friend of ours came to visit and saw everyone just left, so he called us here to…to rob the vault."

Before the guy finished, a group of robbers rushed out, each carrying large bags and running toward their shuttles. But a wall of Marine soldiers stood in front of their shuttles, guns leveled and safeties off. Robbers dropped their bags and put up their hands; but the last guy started punching on his omni-tool and calling for backup. Ashley walked over to him and punched him squarely in his nose. The guy fell backwards, but Ashley didn't stop. She dragged him up and hit his face again, and the guy fell on the large canvas bag he was carrying. Several boxes of toys rolled out of the bag. Ashley picked one up and looked at it. "You're robbing children's toys? Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Those will fetch a lot of credits in the frontier. People pay big money for children's toy at holiday season. Nobody here is going to need them anymore."

"You think that makes it okay to loot, you fucking son of bitch! You're lucky I'm not putting a round in your head right now. Who didn't you call? Where is your backup?" Ashley grabbed his collar.

"If you Alliance types had shown up earlier, you could have saved them. You're just a bunch hypocrites!"

Ashley's face was on fire. She lifted the guy up in the air and tossed him against the side of a shuttle and the guy cried out as his ribs cracked against the heavy plating. "You shut your mouth or I will shut it for you!"

Charlie stood between the man and Ashley, "LT, that's enough. We need to prepare in case his backup shows up. "

Ashley didn't stop. She pushed Charlie aside and was ready to kick the guy on the ground. Heavy gunfire rained down around them from two approaching shuttles and everyone hit the deck. Charlie dragged Ashley down with him. After the robbers' shuttles made the pass, both the Marine soldiers and the robbers picked themselves up and pointed guns at each other. Two guys picked up their friend on the ground and moved toward the two waiting shuttles.

Fifty yards away, the Marines watched the robbers loaded their stolen goods and jumped in the shuttles. The mounted guns on the shuttles were still pointing at the Marines. As the robbers were getting ready to take off, one of the Marines started sprinting toward them firing a pistol and a submachine gun at the same time.

"Ashley, no!" Charlie didn't grab the Lieutenant in time and he watched in horror as his friend dashing into the line of fire. He could hear the whistling sound of missiles flying above their heads and loud explosions came from the robbers' shuttles. Charlie looked up as two Alliance gunships flew by after unloading the missiles that had destroyed both shuttles. When the smoke cleared, Charlie searched for Ashley who was knocked out by the shock wave of the explosions.

Ashley woke up on a small cot in a jail cell. She lifted her head and touched the small bandage on her forehead. "Where am I?"

Across the hall, another cell held a young soldier who was standing at attention talking to a Lieutenant through metal bars. When Ashley asked, they both turned. The Lieutenant walked over to Ashley's cell, "You're on the SSV Orizaba and this is the brig."

"The brig? On what charges?" Ashley stood up and checked the bandages on her arm.

"Our doctor had a look at you. You're lucky you only got some scrapes and a bump on your head. But 14 civilians are dead! It could have been avoided if you had followed the procedure and waited for back up. My gunner is in that cell because of your actions. He might face the court marshal because he had to save your ass. You happy now? You blood lusty jerk! I thought your old Commander would have taught you better than this, being a big hero and all!"

"One more word about my old Commander, when I get out here, I'll…" Ashley held tightly to the metal bars.

"You'll what? Strike a superior officer again? How many times do you think the Corps will tolerate you for your behavior? I don't know how your small frigate was run but on a dreadnaught I'll have you clean the head until the day you get kicked out the Corps."

Anger came before words. Ashley took up the chair in her cell and tossed it against the metal bars. Everyone in the brig including the fellow prisoners stepped back in reaction. The Marine guard leveled his rifle and pointed at Ashley. The Lieutenant lowered his arm shielding his head and he walked slowly toward the mad woman, "You just bought yourself a court marshal, Lieutenant!"

The brig door opened with a hiss and Hannah Shepard walked in the brig. Ashley was stunned. The two women locked eyes as Hannah moved slowly toward the cell while Ashley blinked her eyes with her mouth open. She hadn't seen Hannah since Shepard's memorial where she led the salute guns herself and put all the medals she'd earned from the Battle of the Citadel on the empty coffin. But she didn't talk to Hannah at the service. She was falling apart inside and she couldn't watch the same thing happening to another, let alone Shepard's mother. "Hannah, what are you doing here?" Ashley blurred out.

"Captain on deck, attention!" The MP shouted, bringing Ashley back to reality. She clicked her boots loudly and straightened her body. But Hannah waved her hand at the MP, "I've gone over the reports, and I'm dropping all charges."

"But Captain!" The Lieutenant protested.

Hannah looked at her Marine leader, "We have much more pressing things to deal with. Take your gunner and put him back to work." She turned to the MP, "Unlock the door and give us the room."

With only two women left in the room, Hannah walked into Ashley's cell. "At ease, Lieutenant."

Hannah stood in front of Ashley and she put a hand on Ashley's shoulder. She had seen Shepard wrapping her arm around Ashley's shoulders after they both accepted medals on the Arcturus Station and how they looked at each other, Shepard clearly cared about Ashley and the gunnery chief's eyes were full of devotion. Touching Ashley's shoulder, Hannah's heart skipped. Anything that was Shepard's including Ashley's friendship heated her inside, warming her at the same time stinging. "What were you trying to pull out there, Lieutenant?"

"Someone had to do something, ma'am." Ashley's breathing was getting heavy. "We didn't catch whoever wiped out the entire colony and left no trace, no bodies. At least we could do something about the looters!" Her nostril flared as she tried to control her anger.

"You should have waited for back up." Hannah moved her hand from Ashley's shoulder.

Ashley stood faced the bars. "Like we waited for help when the Normandy was attacked?" She turned and looked at Hannah, "Nobody believed us about the Reapers even after Sovereign attacked us. Are they blind? They sent one ship to face whatever that thing was that attacked us." She realized she was yelling at the Captain. Ashley stopped and turned back to face the bars again. "What was I supposed to do? The looters had to be stopped!" She hit the metal bars with her hand.

"Yes, they had the temerity to waltz in and rob the dead. You did exactly what we expect our Marines to do, but not the way you did it. You weren't just performing your duty," Hannah pointed at the bent chair legs. "What you did was self destruction."

Ashley stood silently, her breathing still heavy.

Hannah sat on the small cot in the cell. A ruffled blanket covered half of an OSD that still flickered with a book. "Reading the Bible?" Hannah picked up the OSD.

"The only book I can read these days." Ashley turned around and looked at the OSD in Hannah's hand. It must have fallen out of her pocket. Any other books she used to adore, poetry books, brought too much heartache since her old Commander's death and her old ship's destruction.

"Acts of the Apostles." Hannah moved her gaze from the OSD and patted the cot. Ashley sat next to her. "I know you're angry and I think I know why. I feel the rage too, and some times I want to destroy something too. But why do you want to self destruct?"

Ashley propped her elbows on her legs and put her head in her hands. "First Kaidan, then Shepard. My friends keep dying around me and nobody seems to want to do something about it." She straightened herself. "I'm a Marine, I know I have to learn how to deal with death. But Shepard's death was different. She wasn't just my friend or some idle I worshipped. She was my road to Damascus. She made me a believer and she made me believe in myself. Believe I was good enough, just to be a Marine I know how, I was good enough!" Tears threatened to come. Ashley had not cried once for her old Commander's death. That would not be what Shepard wanted. Ashley wanted revenge and justice, not tears.

"You still are." Hannah understood Ashley's struggle. She knew that familiar look, the same one Hannah saw every time she looked into a mirror during sleepless nights. Fate spared no one.

"Hitting a superior officer? Risking everyone's life in New Saigon? If it weren't for you, I'd be court marshaled. I should be court marshaled." There was agony in Ashley's voice.

Hannah patted Ashley's hand and stood up. "Come on. Come to my quarters. I have a task for you."

"But I don't work for you."

"You do now. I've requested a transfer for you and your squad, Admiral Hackett will get the signatures."

Inside the captain's quarter on the Orizaba, Ashley couldn't help but marvel. "Wow, the Captain's Quarters on a dreadnought are huge!"

Hannah looked around the room as if she herself had stepped in for the first time. She pointed at the shelves by the wall near her bed, "Those are not mine. Leftover from the last captain. I've been so busy to even pay attention to the decorations. I only need a bed to sleep in and desk where I can work."

Ashley didn't pay too much attention to Hannah's rambling as she stood in front of a large glass case built into the bulkheads. Dozens of weapons in different sizes and condition stood on the racks that occupied the entire side of the room. "Wow!" was all that Ashley could manage to get out.

"What?" Hannah looked up, "Those? Those are mine." Seeing Ashley tracing the shapes of her favorite rocket launcher with her fingers on the glass cage, Hannah smiled. "You didn't think my daughter learned how to shoot from her father, did you?"

Ashley chuckled at Hannah's cocky smile that she had seen many times on her old Commander. "Yeah, she was a good shot only with the weapons I modded for her." Then she looked down and her smile disappeared.

Hannah sighed. "Running a ship is like running a big family. I need people I can trust and people who understand me."

Ashley faced the Captain. "What do you need me to do? Just say the word."

"Do you know how to get in touch with Dr. Liara T'Soni?" Hannah asked.

"No, but I know someone who might."

* * *

Fin 2 stood by a railing near the Apollo's Café on the Presidium waiting for G.G. to finish her procurement of some fancy chips and implants. They were taking a day of shore leave to come to the Citadel so that G.G. could buy tech gear and parts for the ship. And Fin 2 was here for another matter.

It'd been weeks since their first "non-kiss" and Fin 2 still had no clue why G.G. had turned her down. The young commando had locked herself in her small electronics lab for days in the name of going over the data from Liara's scans of the sniper. But it felt like G.G. was hiding from something or someone. What was she hiding from?

Fin 2 had decided to let G.G. ease back and to let them go back to where they were, and that seemed to have worked. G.G. went back to her normal routine and her old self after they had dropped off the Justicar on Illium. It was comforting to have G.G. as a close friend again but Fin 2 couldn't put the "non-kiss" out of her mind. The complete openness she felt toward the young commando was tantalizing and the briefness of it only acted as fuel to the fire. She even let G.G. talk her into coming to the Citadel and barter a dessert treat after dinner. Fin 2 smiled at her plan when she saw the young commando hurry into the courtyard.

"Sorry it took so long. These merchants treat every asari customer like we had a million credits ready to spend with them." G.G. was a little out of breath from rushing over here. "Shall we get going?"

Fin 2 took G.G.'s hand and led her to sit on a bench, their knees touching. "Are you sure you want to go with me?"

G.G. nodded. "Of course. I had to shop for engine parts just to get an extra day on my shore leave so I could come to the Citadel with you. I'm not backing out now. Let's get going."

Fin 2 didn't move. She put a hand on G.G.'s knee. "I just want you to know how much I appreciate you making me do this."

"Yeah, I practically dragged you into the comm room, I even dialed the number for you. And I let that grease monkey at the engine parts store grab my ass to save time from haggling so we could get there on time. Now that I think of it, I've earned two treats instead of one after this. Can we renegotiate on the dessert deal?" G.G. giggled.

"Who grabbed your ass?" Fin 2's eyes started popping.

"The guy manning the emporium at the docks down at the Zakera Ward. He does that to everyone. I just hate the fact that I have to go back there and pick up the order later." G.G. didn't want to waste more time. "Come on, you really shouldn't be late for the meeting." G.G. looked at Fin 2's serious face and she took the sniper's hand. "Look, I know it's hard. But I'll be there waiting for you. No matter what happens, you'll have me there waiting for you. Okay?"

Fin 2 frowned and squeezed G.G.'s hand, but she remained silent.

G.G. settled back down. "What's it, Alia?"

Fin 2 took a deep breath, "We have trust between us, don't we? I put my life in your hands and you put yours in mine. We trust one another."

G.G. didn't know where Fin 2 was going with this. "Always and forever."

Fin 2 lowered her head and looked at G.G.'s hands. "But I want to put something else in your hands, something more, and I want you to put yours in mine." She looked up at G.G.'s face again. "I want to put my heart with yours. No, I have put it in your hands and I don't want to take it back."

G.G. was caught unprepared by Fin 2's declaration. She took her hands back. "I told you, I can't."

"Why not?"

"I just can't. It's for your own good. I'm not good for you."

Fin 2 palmed her face trying to calm herself down. "Is it our age difference? You think you're too young for me? I don't mind that one bit. If I have to wait, I'll wait for as long as it needs to be. But I need to know, do you love me?"

G.G. turned to face the Presidium and answered meekly. "It doesn't matter."

Fin 2 pulled G.G.'s shoulder and turned G.G. to face her. "It does to me. Do you love me?"

The back of G.G.'s neck started burning. She took a few deep breaths. "I can't love you! I'll be your friend for the rest of my life. I'll be there for you whenever you need me. I won't let you down or fail you when you need my protection. I just can't love you and I can't tell you why!"

Fin 2 jumped up from the bench and started walking. G.G. followed her. "Alia, wait."

"I don't want you to come with me." Fin 2 shouted without turning her head. She hurried to get to a taxi port.

G.G. jogged after Fin 2. "I talked you into it. I told you I'd come. I'm coming with you."

Fin 2 stopped and turned to G.G., "You did your job as a friend. I'll handle it from here. You just…leave me alone."

Fin 2 quickened her steps toward the transit port, and G.G. still followed her. Fin 2 stopped and turned her body half way; G.G. stopped a few paces away. Fin 2 resumed her jog and G.G. started to follow her again.

At the taxi port, Fin 2 jumped into a skycar. G.G. knocked on the side door. "Come on, Alia. Let me in. Please." She was begging with her large sparkly eyes.

Fin 2 hesitated but she pulled the thruster. "Take the next car."

G.G. waited outside the asari commando officer's lounge where Fin 2 was meeting with her mother. G.G. wanted to go in but she wasn't permitted unless an officer had invited her. So she sat with the receptionist making idle chat as she watched Fin 2 and Commander Bellana through the clear glass.

Fin 2 stood in front of the Commander who was sitting in one of the sofas. From the looks of it, Fin 2 refused to sit. G.G. winced and muttered under her breath, "Sit down next to her, you idiot!" But before long, the Commander stood up and pointed her finger at her daughter and she looked like she was yelling at the sniper. Fin 2 stood at attention and let the Commander yell. Then she pointed at the sofa and the Commander sat down again. Fin 2 started pacing and talking. G.G. was a little relieved when she saw Fin 2 finally sit down next to her mother. At the end of the conversation, the Commander sagged in her chair sobbing.

Fin 2 came out of the large lounge and headed straight to the bathroom. G.G. ran after her. Inside the large and bright bathroom, Fin 2 stood facing a wall in a small sitting area. She held her head with her arm against the walk, crying. G.G. walked behind her and hesitantly she put a hand on Fin 2's back and lightly stroked it. Fin 2 turned and buried her face in G.G.'s shoulder and let her tears fall freely.

G.G. led Fin 2 to a chair in the sitting area after holding her sobbing friend for a while, and she wetted a towel and handed to Fin 2. "Do I need to go and kick the Commander's ass?"

Fin 2 let out a chuckle and shook her head. She opened her hand and looked at a set of ID tags. "They gave Graf's ID tags to my mother. She just gave them to me."

"So you two talked it out?" G.G.'s eyes were full of hope.

"Not all of it. But it was a good start."

G.G. smiled and hugged Fin 2 tightly.

Down at the Zakera docks, Fin 2 waited for G.G. to check the parts she had ordered, and she pointed at a short human with a greasy face. "Is that the grease monkey?"

The human saw G.G. and he smiled. Fin 2 saw two of his front teeth were missing.

The grease monkey moved his thick legs towards G.G., "I hope everything is in order." He raised his hand to touch G.G., but Fin 2 caught his wrist.

"What happened to your teeth, buddy?" Fin 2 asked.

"Someone punched them out." The grease monkey's sneaky eyes were still on G.G.'s butt.

"Why did someone punch you?" Fin 2 asked again.

"Because I grabbed his girlfriend's ass." The grease monkey started giggling.

Fin 2 turned his face to look her in the eye. "You're about to lose another one." Before the grease monkey wiped the smile off his face, Fin 2's fist connected solidly with it.

As Fin 2 and G.G. made their way back to the transit port, they heard the grease monkey crying behind them. "My tooth!"

* * *

Two levels above the docks in the Dark Star Lounge, Dr. Wilson was downing colorful drinks. For over two years now, he'd been cooped up on that god-forsaken ship with that cold-blooded bitch peering over his shoulder at everything he did. "Lazarus, the bitch compared herself to Jesus." When the Illusive Man approached him to join the project, Wilson thought he'd be in charge of the medical reconstruction and make important decisions. But Miranda Lawson second guessed everything he did and took actions against his advice whenever she saw fit. Two years later, Wilson was still the lab rat, making a paltry salary while an unthinkable amount of credits went into the project for a single soldier. He finally had enough. He wanted to make some credits while he still had the chance. Contacting the Shadow Broker was the only logical choice. After all, the Shadow Broker sent his agents to follow Shepard's body all over the galaxy. He'd pay big for her now that her reconstruction was almost complete.

Meeting the Shadow Broker's agent was not strictly necessary. An account was already set up in his name. Half of the agreed amount had been wired into it and the other half would follow upon delivery of Shepard's body. But Wilson needed more. His ego was repeatedly stumped on in the last two years. With the ultimate bargaining chip in his hand, something that everyone in the galaxy seemed to want to pour credits into, he wanted more than credits. He knew the Shadow Broker didn't beg, but a nice gesture would seal the deal. After 5 drinks at the Dark Star Lounge, Wilson saw that gesture and he smiled.

"Ah, Spectre! Over here." Wilson waved a hand, already half drunk.

Tela Vasir disliked meeting in nightclubs. Cloying sweat, fermented alcoholic breath, overcooked animal meat, they all offered one thing: an offensive nasal assault. Nightclubs were fine for staging shootouts and accidents, but they were not for meetings. Too many eyes and it was always too loud to hear anyone talk. But she had to do this job. She owed the Shadow Broker.

When Vasir first became a Spectre, she had high hopes for her job and for herself. But it seemed that the Goddess had other designs. All the tasks she was assigned to were mundane crimes that C-Sec should have handled. Her last case had her chasing some hackers all over the galaxy. Hackers! She didn't train under a biotics master for a hundred years just to chase down hackers who didn't even know how to hide themselves well. Staging a nightclub shootout that wiped every last one of them out was an insult to Vasir's intelligence and her supreme power.

"Congratulations on your recent success, Spectre. Next time, try to avoid civilian casualties." That message was the only thing she got from the Council for busting the hackers.

"Kiss my fucking blue ass!"

When the Shadow Broker asked her to handle Shepard's case, Vasir gladly took the job. She owed the Broker for giving her the lead on a large slave trading ring on a salarian planet. She'd been working on this for months and she knew she was very close to busting it wide open. Vasir was also happy to hand Shepard to the Shadow Broker personally. When Sovereign attacked the Citadel, Vasir was undercover chasing the hackers on a planet in the Terminus System. It wasn't just that she missed her chance at protecting the Council, something a Spectre was trained to do, but a human that had been a Spectre for only a few months saved the Citadel and the Council. A young human, an infant by asari standards, with no biotic powers and no long term military training took all the glory because she was lucky enough to be at the right place and right time. Fate had played an unfair game. But then, the Shadow Broker handed her this case.

"I can't believe the Shadow Broker sent a Spectre." Wilson giggled. He didn't expect Vasir would actually show up after the Shadow Broker told him whom he'd meet. He tried to stand up, but a hiccup warned him that standing would be a bad idea right now.

Vasir tightened her lips watching the drunken human's snaky eyes running up and down her body. If it were up to Vasir, she'd tie up this spineless human in a chair and make him spill his guts, figuratively and literately. But that was not how the Shadow Broker worked. Broken people were broken assets and broken assets cost money. The Broker only used violence when it was necessary because violence begot violence, and that was bad for business.

"Damn him and his manipulation!" Vasir cursed under her breath. She sat down across the large table and hung back in her seat.

"Spectre…" Wilson was cut off.

"Don't call me that. We have to be discreet. Call me Vasir."

"Oh, come on. Nobody knows who you are." Wilson dragged his words.

Vasir disliked Wilson the minute she saw him but after those words, she wanted to hit him with a biotic throw. "Just tell me the plan so I can get out of here." Vasir's voice was icy.

Wilson's glee of having a Spectre begging for his help froze on his face. "Hey, the Shadow Broker wanted my help. This is what's wrong with my life. Too many ice queens."

Vasir had enough. She jumped over the table and pushed Wilson's head into a plate of food. "We can do this the easy way or we do it the hard way. If you know what a Spectre can do, you know not to fuck with me."

"Okay, okay. No need to get so angry." Wilson talked into a plate of salad. But Vasir didn't let him go. Wilson huffed to move a piece of lettuce stuck under his face that blocked his mouth from talking. When it didn't move, he took it into his mouth and chewed it. Vasir gave his head another push. Wilson swallowed the half chewed lettuce loudly. "I'll disable the defense systems on the station and set the mechs to attack all personnel. When everyone is dead, I will release the beacon and you can come and collect the body. "

"Give me the coordinates." Vasir kept her hold on the human's head.

"In my front pocket."

Vasir took out a small disc from Wilson's pocket and towered over the human. "I'll contact you in two days. If you screw this up, there is nowhere you can hide from me. Remember that."

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: Shepard returns in "A Hero Behind the Enemy Line"


	11. Chapter 11 A Hero Behind Enemy Lines

**Second Life**

**Chapter Eleven – A Hero Behind Enemy Lines**

Liara stood on top of a wide stone staircase, shielding her eyes from the mid-day sun with one hand, watching an asari commando shuttle land in the front lawn. Aethyta and Shiala jumped out and climbed the tall steps toward the entrance. Liara smiled and walked to meet her guests. "Matriarch, welcome to the T'Soni Estate."

Aethyta reached the enormous front door and paused. She hadn't been in this place for over a hundred years. She had prepared herself on the shuttle ride down from the Blue Sabre, but being here, smelling the newly cut grass and seeing the large fruit tree out front bending its low branches as if waving at her in that familiar pose, Aethyta's heart skipped. "The old Tank is still alive and going strong." Aethyta muttered. How many nights had she and Nezzy spent under that tree and looked up at the stars? That tree had been in Aethyta's dreams so many times, but there was always Nezzy under the lower branches in her dreams to. She sighed.

"I hope you don't mind that I brought Shiala with me." Aethyta turned halfway and let Shiala, who had been standing a few steps behind her, join them.

"Of course not." Liara took a large step to hug Shiala. "It's good to see you, Shiala. Welcome home."

Shiala's eyes swelled with tears. Shiala hadn't seen Liara since the Normandy left the Citadel to chase down the geth after Shepard returned to duty. When the news of the Normandy's destruction came, Shiala was still organizing Matriarch Benezia's archives at the request of Councilor Tevos. It was first a relief to hear Liara was safe but then it was a devastation to hear Shepard's death. Shiala tried to get in touch with Liara but without success, and she tried Ashley and Ashley answered. Shiala sent a few words to Ashley that she knew wouldn't make a difference to someone who had just lost her close friend, but she left her contact information with Ashley and told her that she could call upon her for anything she needed. After all, Ashley was the one that helped her get through the first withdrawals of the Thorian indoctrination.

"Thank you, Liara. It's good to be back here." Shiala hugged Liara tightly and her tears didn't stop. It wasn't just the deaths, Benezia's and Shepard's, but also the living that wrenched at her heart. How could she get through this visit with Aethyta back here when Liara was still in the dark about her father? When Aethyta approached her with Liara's invitation in hand, Shiala's first words were, "We can't do this to Liara."

Aethyta could only sigh. "You want me to break my promise to Nezzy in her own house, the exact same place where I made that blood oath? Don't you think I want nothing more than tell her the truth?"

Liara took Shiala's hand and walked everyone inside. "I am grateful that you accepted my invitation, Matriarch. I have some new developments on hunting down the Shadow Broker and I would like to ask you for help."

Aethyta stood at the entrance of the front sitting room. Nothing had been moved; it was just like how Nezzy decorated it, just as Aethyta remembered it. The bright yellow curtains draped from the ceiling to floor, providing a much needed decoration in a large stony room starved for colors. Nezzy used to stand in front of the immense windows, fingering the soft fabric of the curtains, thinking about the future. "How do we see the future, Thyta, when we're so deeply rooted in our past?"

Aethyta would stand a couple of paces away watching the beautiful asari with her favorite color as backdrop. When she looked through the large windows, she knew she saw a different picture. "You don't see the future, Nezzy. You create it."

Liara observed the Matriarch's lingering gaze at the yellow curtains, the paintings on the walls and the small items on bookshelves, and she suddenly realized that the Matriarch might have known her mother and she might even have been here visiting before. Liara led her guests to the large sofa and sat in the armchair across the table.

"I thought it fitting to keep my mother's décor." Liara started to pour tea in the tea set prepared for her guests.

"She had a spicy taste on things." Aethyta blurted it out and then she regretted it.

Liara almost dropped her spoon. "How did you know what I thought of mother's taste?"

Liara and Aethyta locked eyes, Aethyta fumbled for words. Shiala came to the rescue, "It's quite obvious."

A small orange animal meandered out from behind the long sofa and sniffed everyone's feet. As Liara put tea on the table in front of her guests, Nyxeris walked into the room. The small animal saw the newcomer and she let out a wet and loud hiss. Liara chided, "Mimi T'Soni, behave yourself." The cat stared at Nyxeris with her mouth open a while longer, then she turned around, walk back to the sofa and jumped on Aethyta's lap and curled up.

Liara waved Nyxeris to sit in the chair next her. "This is my assistant in Nos Astra, Nyxeris. She has been helping me sift through information on locating the Shadow Broker and she might have input on our plan of attack." Liara put a teacup in front of Nyxeris and then she took one herself.

Just as everyone was about to start on their tea, a piecing alarm went off. Liara stood up and launched her omni-tool. "What's going on?"

A man's voice came on. "Someone triggered an alarm within the inner perimeter. It could be the roof or somewhere inside the house. We're checking it."

Liara tapped on her omni-tool. A motion sensor map of the house came to life above her arm. A red dot was on the move. As Liara rotated the kinetic control knob, the map zoomed into where the intruder was moving. Shiala knew the house better than anyone in the room and she was the first one to realize it. "Goddess, the intruder is right above us!"

Aethyta looked up. "The service tunnels for the damn fireplaces."

As everyone looked up at the tunnel door, a flash of crimson descended above their heads, accompanied by the rustling of fabric. In a fluid move, an asari in red armor and red cape stood in the center of the room. The cat zipped off and hid behind the sofa. Aethyta and Shiala hurriedly readied their biotics, and Nyxeris dropped her teacup on the hard stone floor, shattering it to pieces.

Liara tapped her omni-tool again. "You can cancel the alarm and reset the perimeter." She turned to the asari in red, "Let me guess, if you didn't want me to know, you wouldn't have triggered the alarm."

"You're a fast learner." The asari swiped her gaze around the room.

Liara raised her hand, "May I present our last guest, Nightshade."

"She's an assassin for hire." Nyxeris frowned at her quick reaction to the name.

"How do you know she's an assassin?" Aethyta questioned.

Nyxeris mumbled, "I, um, I came across her name in the information trading network." She tried to deflect attention to the new guest. "How do we know she's on our side?"

"Yes, I'm an assassin. I kill people for living. You might think I'm the evil in your garden of paradise but I've seen much fouler things, things without loyalty and without love. Powers that are so blunt and brutal that you won't see it coming and they leave suffering behind. The Shadow Broker is fouler than all of them and his power is greater than you can imagine. And he has my beloved." Nightshade paced slowly behind everyone and she stopped behind Nyxeris. She bent down and put her face next to Nyxeris', "You see, I am indeed on your side. The question is whose side are you on?"

Liara cut in. "Please! If I didn't trust everyone, I wouldn't have invited you all here. But to deal with the Shadow Broker, first we have to find him."

"And when we do, I will beat the crap out of him and shove it back down his own throat for messing with…" Aethyta stopped before saying "my girl".

Aethyta looked at Liara. "I told you that I'd use my resources to help you and I've found a lead from a very reliable source. There is an asari Spectre who's working closely with the Shadow Broker. I've asked Shiala to go over the Citadel Archives and do some research".

Shiala launched her omni-tool, "I've come up with several names and I'm narrowing it down by monitoring the chatter on the information trading networks. And we found a location that keeps coming up when the Shadow Broker was involved."

Liara looked at the stream of slides and images Shiala is going through on her omni-tool. "Is it a planet?" She asked.

"No, it's a ship." Shiala stopped at a string of communications waves. "And the latest chatter showed some important activities going down on that ship."

Nightshade took the communications data from Shiala and put it into her omni-tool. "I'll check this location with Feron's data that he gave me for safe keeping." She gave it a few taps and found what she was looking for. "It looks like Feron had been on that ship before."

Liara's heart was racing. Could this be the place? Everything seemed to fit into the same picture. She looked at her assistant. "What do you think, Nyxeris?"

Nyxeris had been on this assignment for far too long. She had expected to get the intel for the Shadow Broker and kill the pureblooded bitch in a week when she signed up. Instead, the Broker had mobilized his other assets to handle the matter. That could only mean fewer credits for her and perhaps even that she'd lost the Broker's confidence in her ability. The traps she set usually worked, but she didn't usually have to contend with asari commandos and their warship or the asari Matriarchy who seemed to be entirely behind her target. The initial burning fire for revenge had turned cold, bitterly cold. Some days, Nyxeris wanted to just walk into Liara's office and put a bullet in her head and be done with. Only fear had stopped her from pulling a foolish stunt like that. Nightshade was right, the Shadow Broker did not know loyalty or compassion. Just ask those who failed him: the Broker would strip their dignity by torturing them then toss their bodies to a pack of starved varrens in his den. The Shadow Broker was the master ruler of his domain; he sent the videos of torture and the feedings of the hungry beasts to all his employees, especially the named operatives, like The Observer.

Nyxeris put on a small smile while accepting the data from Shiala. She knew her duty was to inform the Shadow Broker about the exposure of the ship as well as his operative in the asari Spectre's ranks. Shiala might not have arrived at a name yet, but she was heading to the right direction. Nyxeris knew that with the keen eye of an archivist who was trained to look for patterns and connections, it wouldn't take too long to find the signs, a sudden lead to a big score, a mysterious source to the most secretive businesses or operations conveniently dropped on someone's lap. Easy signs. And Shiala was an archivist for Matriarch Benezia for hundreds of years.

As Nyxeris looked through the data, Nightshade worked on her own omni-tool. "I hope none of you mind that I've blocked all communications to the outside networks until we leave for our mission. Liara might trust all of you, but I only trust Liara. So she'll be the only one who can get through my firewall. If you have any urgent need to contact outside, go through Liara."

Everyone nodded. _Well, there goes that._ Nyxeris thought. She'd just have to improvise.

At the first light of dawn, Liara climbed the drawdown ladder to the roof of the T'Soni's mansion. She found a figure sitting on the stone railing with her legs dangling next to the balusters.

"I thought I might find you here." Liara sat next to the figure that didn't react to her approach.

"We have a good plan." Nightshade turned and looked at Liara. "Why does the Shadow Broker want you dead? Well, it doesn't matter to me why, really. As long as I know we're in it together."

The early morning sun had just begun to provide enough light to define the shapes of buildings in the distance. A thin layer of fog obscured the horizon.

Liara moved her gaze to beyond the grove of trees surrounded the property and pointed. "You see that big tower over there? My mother used to work there when I was little. When she worked late, I often came up here and stared at the building really hard wishing her to come home soon."

"Did it work?" The lady in red smiled.

"Sometimes, or so I thought. I am sure she came home at her own convenience." Liara shook her head slightly with a sad smile. "After Shepard was gone, I went to the Citadel docks and stared at the elevator she used to come out all the time. I stood in the lobby and stared at that elevator for hours and hours, wishing she would walk out."

Nightshade nodded. "I know what you mean. You have to go completely crazy to see things clearly."

"Precisely." Liara was not surprised that Nightshade understood her. She could sense the same struggle behind those words and from the painful way she said them. _She is holding on to that sliver of hope the same way I do._ Liara's hardened self suddenly felt fragile. "What crazy things did you do?"

"I went to Kahje and swam with the sharks."

"You did what?" Liara turned her head back to Nightshade.

Nightshade chuckled at first, "It sounds crazy, but that's how we met. Me and Feron." She pulled up her legs and sat facing Liara, and Liara matched her move. "I was carrying out a contract to assassinate his friend who lived in an underwater structure. During the recon mission near the structure, a giant shark attacked me. I almost died. Feron nursed me back to health. He was very kind to me."

"You risked getting killed by the sharks again?" Liara could see the insanity in that.

"No, not after Feron taught me how to talk to them." Nightshade played a short audio on her omni-tool. "It sounds different under water. Swimming with the sharks made me realize that I was searching for answers I already knew. It was already within me." She looked at Liara, a young maiden, much younger than herself. Yet she understood so much.

"My mother used to say, look deep into yourself, when you look hard enough you'll see your own future, you'll see who you truly are. Nothing else will serve." Liara's voice softened as she saw Nightshade's piercing gaze mellow. "So, you looked into your heart; what did you see?"

"He's still alive. And I'll be the one who rescues him." Solid words, not a trace of doubt. "What about you? What did you see when you looked within?"

Liara breathed in the clear morning air deeply. "I will not stand alone to face the galaxy in peril. She will return."

_But will she look at me the same way as she once did?_

* * *

"Do you think they saw us landing?" Liara joined the commandos behind their cover. They had landed on the ship with the asari commandos and established a barricade in front of a large door in the aft of the ship.

"Oh, they definitely saw us." Onyx waved G.G. over, "You think you can hack the door?"

G.G. opened her toolbox and launched a large scanner. "If I could get to the door lock, but there's an energy shield protecting the entire entrance. The control must be inside the ship, we have to turn it off, then I can hack the door if we can't get the passcode from inside."

Nightshade took off her sash and unraveled it into a veil and covered her head. "Leave it to me."

"I am coming with you." Liara took out her Carnifex, "You will need someone to watch your back."

"Yeah, and keep an eye on you." Nyxeris chimed from behind. She seemed more relaxed since they approached the enemy ship and she even had a smile on her face.

Aethyta was itching in her brand new armor. She squirmed her body a little and then took out her old but trusty rifle. "You kids be careful inside and don't take any chances. We'll hold the bastards until you lowered the shield."

Nightshade didn't bother to spare a look at Nyxeris, but Liara touched Aethyta's arm. "You be careful too, Matriarch."

Liara followed Nightshade to the outer plating well below the large vent that looked to be one and a half times a person's height. Nightshade pressed her body next to the wall and took out two knives. "Let's hope they won't notice the malfunction alert from the vent when they're too busy organizing base defense." She turned her body quickly from cover and threw a knife at the camera and sensor cluster above the vent. The installation flickered then went dark again. Nightshade took off her veil and threaded it into the ring on the hilt of the other dagger, and she swung it over the vent cover. The knife flew smoothly through the grid hole and Nightshade climbed to the vent opening high above in a few strides. She kicked open the vent cover, and brought up her biotics in one hand that extended down. Liara brought up her biotics, and two hands linked in sparkling energy, lifting Liara to the vent.

"It'll get hot as we get closer." Nightshade warned. Liara only nodded.

Below the vent, a large group of security guards following two large mechs ran through the door and hid behind the barricade inside the energy shield. The thick door shut and locked behind them.

Onyx gave the order and all commandos including Aethyta opened fire. But their firepower including rocket launchers couldn't penetrate the large shield. The enemy force formed behind the giant mechs and advanced through the shield toward the asari.

Inside the ventilation shaft, Nightshade stopped Liara as they came to the intersection of a four-way tunnel. Nightshade whispered, "Motion sensors." She covered herself entirely with her veil and disappeared under cloaking. "Wait for my signal." She disappeared into one of the tunnels, and Liara could only hear a faint tapping on Nightshade's omni-tool.

Liara's comm beeped in her ear, it was from the Matriarch. "We can't penetrate the shield with our firepower and we're taking heavy fire from the mechs and defending forces. We'll hold until you take the shield down."

"We'll move fast, Matriarch! Hold on." Liara quickly moved into the tunnel where Nightshade had disappeared. In the dim lighting, Liara couldn't clearly see where Nightshade was on her vector map and she almost bumped into the assassin hadn't Nightshade had grabbed her arms.

"I told you to wait for my signal." Nightshade uncloaked.

"We must hurry. If we don't take out that shield soon, our commandos will be slaughtered." Liara relayed the situation.

Nightshade flipped the veil back, "I was going to disable the sensors to make for safe passage. But if we go the quick route we might face the firing squad at the other end ourselves."

"I'm willing to take the risk." Liara's gun flickered a reflection even in the dim light.

Nightshade looked at her omni-map and pointed, "The control room isn't far down that way. We need to be quick or we'll be sitting ducks if they start shooting at us in here. When I say jump, you jump." She waited for Liara to nod and she took off running.

The two running forms set off busy sounding alarms in the tunnels but they didn't slow down. Up ahead, light shone through a gridded cover. Nightshade pulled the cover with her biotics while still running at full speed, she flipped the heavy cover over their heads and dropped it behind them. When they were both at the large exit hole, Nightshade shouted. "Jump!"

The fall seemed to have lasted forever, but both asari landed with their biotics slowing their fall. When they stood up again, security guards surrounded them with guns pointing. "Drop your weapons and put your hands up!" One of the guards shouted.

Nightshade and Liara stood back to back. Nightshade put up her hands while holding her veil in each hand and Liara kept her pistol leveled. A high whiny pitch came from behind the security guards, and one of them yelled "Grenade!" Everyone ducked. Nightshade flicked her wrists and opened her veil in the shape of a lotus leaf and then draped it over both Liara and herself.

"Run!" Nightshade led them down the hall and through a door just in time to dodge the spray of bullets aiming at their direction.

"Where did the grenade come from?" Liara bent down and panted as Nightshade locked the door.

"I tossed a dummy before we jumped down, just in case. There's no detonator in it."

Liara gathered the veil from the floor and handed it back to Nightshade. It felt surprisingly heavy. "This is a handy cloak." Liara admired.

"It's also an armor and a shape shifter. I had it specially made with a rare material." Violet blood dripped from her arm onto her red boots.

"You've been shot!" Liara searched for medi-gel in her pocket.

"We don't have time for that." Nightshade quickly wrapped her veil around her. "I'm all right. We have to take the shield down. Come on!" When she cloaked again under the veil, Liara stared at Nightshade's violet-bloodied boots. The hidden figure explained. "My red armor isn't just matching the color of my cloaking veil, it syncs with its frequency."

"Shore up the barriers!" Onyx ordered. The asari commandos were taking on heavy rocket fire from two large mechs and gunfire from the guards behind the mechs. Aethyta was tired of hiding. She shouted to G.G. over the loud explosions, "Get me a bunch of frag grenades!" G.G. quickly collected several grenades and bundled them in a small utility sack and handed it Aethyta. Aethyta armed each of them and timed detonation. She balanced the sack of explosives with her biotics, and stretched the energy into a long string. As the grenades reaching the end of the timer, Aethyta swung her biotics like a sling and hurled the sack of grenades at one of the giant mechs. A large explosion came when the sack hit the fuel tank behind the mech's head, then a secondary explosion from its own fuel erupted, completely tearing the giant machine apart. The flying metal pieces and the explosions took out half of the advancing force. Cheers came from the commandos while Aethyta repeated her trick with the remaining mech.

Inside the large control room, a human sat on the floor by a wall of control consoles, holding a mess of blood around his stomach, his light armor ripped in pieces. He was struggling for breath. Liara ran over to him while Nightshade covered their rear.

"Where is the shield control?" Liara asked.

The human slowly lifted his hand and pointed at a control. Nightshade went to work. Liara took out a gel pack but the human shook his head lightly. "It's too late for that." He coughed.

"It's done!" Nightshade reported behind them.

The human pointed at another control, "The password…is Katana."

Nightshade looked at the control console and understood its function. "The front entrance is open." Nightshade joined Liara with the human on the floor. "Is this the Shadow Broker's base?"

"It used to be. Now it's a relay station for the Shadow Broker." The man coughed again.

"A decoy." Nightshade breathed the words through her teeth. "There are no prisoners held by the Shadow Broker on this ship, are there?" The human shook his head. "Damn it!" Nightshade stood up and banged her hand on the wall. Liara took the human's hand away carefully and rubbed some medi-gel on his wound, though she couldn't see clearly the extend of his injury.

"This will at least take some pain away." Liara squatted down next the human. "What are you doing here?"

"The batarians discovered technologies from an ancient machine race called..."

"The Reapers." Liara's attention moved to the man's face from his wound.

"The Alliance raided the batarians for that information. Before they wiped out the batarians, the captain of the ship recorded a distress call with the details of their discovery and the Alliance attack before he was killed. I came for that information." The human winced and coughed more, this time blood came from his mouth when he coughed.

"Why here?" So Alliance was still interested in investigating the Reapers.

"This is a dead drop station for the Shadow Broker. He acquired the recording from the man who shot me. I came to steal it."

"Who hired you to steal it?"

"Cerberus. I had it and stored it in my own memory box. But the man whose army you're fighting took it from me. You must get it back. He's a dangerous man." He coughed more and started to slide off the wall. "His name is Donovan Hock."

Liara took hold of the human's shoulders. "Stay with me. We have a warship close by. We'll get you to the doctors. Just stay with me."

The man gripped Liara's wrist with his bloodied hand and struggled for air. "Please record a message for me." He waited for Liara to bring out a small disc and dropped it in her omni-tool and then he took a few shuddered breaths. "Kasumi, it's Keiji. I'm sorry to leave you out of this heist, but it's too dangerous. I couldn't risk your life. Get the greybox back. I've left you pieces of me in that box." His breathing slowed and his hand let go of Liara's wrist.

"I love you, Kasumi."

As the commandos combed the ship for any useful intel, Liara helped Nightshade bandage her arm. "I am sorry we didn't find Feron here. I won't stop until we do, I promise you. You will be reunited with your love."

* * *

Across the galaxy in deep space, Miranda Lawson was locked out of her own control room. The mechs on the Lazarus Research Station had gone haywire. Through the large window, she could see the mechs chasing down her staff and shooting them until every single one of them was dead. Miranda ran back to her quarters and locked the door. Ship-wide communications were jammed. She moved to a console by her bed that monitored the operating room 24/7 and activated the audio feed. Thanks to her scrupulous security rules, her monitor console had its own security codes and its own direct feed.

"Shepard, wake up! Wake up, Shepard!" A large mech banged on her door. Miranda spared a quick glance at that direction, but quickly returned her attention to the console. She must save Shepard! "I know your scars aren't healed, but I need you to get up. The station is under attack. You're in danger if you don't get up and defend yourself."

A heavy jolt shook the operating bed, almost rolling Shepard out of it. The blinding light flashed into her eyes. Shepard shut her eyes tightly, tears leaked out and she shielded her eyes from the light with both hands.

"Shepard, get up!" A female voice came to focus.

Thirst, unbelievable thirst. Shepard finally adjusted to the lighting when she opened her eyes. She was in an operating room and on an operating table. She looked at her hands and she saw scars, angry scars with faint red showing through the cracks. They were small cracks, but the red pulsing light made them look like chasms.

"Shepard, get to the weapons locker and arm yourself. The mechs will get to you soon." The voice came again. Shepard wanted to answer, but when she spoke no sound came out. She looked around the room. Beyond the operating area there were some desks and there was a glass with a couple of sips of water still left. Shepard jumped down from the operating table and wanted to grab the water. But she fell on her knees and pain slowly came to foreground when she tried to feel her legs. She screamed silently from pain.

"Shepard, what's wrong?" The voice asked with concern. Shepard still couldn't speak, but feeling returned to her legs along with the pain. She could feel her left leg but her right leg was still numb, in fact everything below her right hip was numb. She pulled herself up using the operating table and limped to the desk and grabbed the water.

"Shepard, tell me what's going on with you." The voice asked again.

"I can't," It was odd to hear her own voice, it sounded dry like tree bark. She sipped the rest of the water in the cup, "I can't feel my right hip."

"Shepard, I know you haven't fully healed, but I need you to arm yourself. This station is being attacked. I can guide you to safety. You must do as I say and do it fast."

As though to make her point, two mechs stepped in the room and started shooting. Shepard followed every instruction the voice gave her.

The station was large and the hallways were very long. Shepard was glad to have finally arrived in a room that had another living soul. A man was trash talking the mechs and slamming them with biotics throws and pulls, "Come over here!" "Gotta hurt!" He sounded like he was having fun. Shepard joined him behind the cover. "You!" The man's glee from crashing the mechs into pieces disappeared. He seemed shocked to see Shepard. "Miranda got you running around?"

"You know who I am?" Shepard's mind was completely blank for a while, but memories started to flash back.

"Of course. You're Commander Shepard, the Savior of the Citadel and my personal hero." The man seemed to be a straight shooter. Shepard felt a little more at ease.

"You know who set the mechs to attack the station?"

Before the man could answer, they were interrupted. More mechs, a lot more mechs blocked their path but they managed to pick up another man with a leg wound. Finally they arrived at the door to the shuttle bay, a dark haired woman appeared when the door opened and she shot the man with wounded leg in the throat. Everything was happening so fast, but at least they all made it to the shuttle in one piece and made it off the station.

"You killed that man in cold blood." Shepard recognized the voice of the dark haired woman. It was her voice that guided her through the station but she also remembered seeing the woman before. "You were there when I woke up once. How long have I been on that station?"

"Two years." The man with big muscles and tight uniform answered.

"Do you remember anything?" The dark haired woman stared at her with intensity.

"I've had flashes of memories before hitting the last leg of the battle on the station. But…" Faces and names became clearer and clearer. Mom and Dad.

"Do you remember the Normandy?" The dark haired woman asked again.

The Normandy. Yes, more names and more faces. David Anderson, Dr. Chakwas, Joker. Joker, that name had an additional meaning. But why? _Why can't I remember how I got here?_

The shuttle jolted from turbulence, they were getting closer to something. "Where are we going?"

"To another space station." Jacob offered. Miranda's eyes didn't leave Shepard's face.

"Whose space station is it?" Shepard's piercing stare made Jacob answer truthfully.

"Cerberus."

Shepard didn't react immediately. _Cerberus, I've heard that name before. Where have I heard that name before?_ Another jolt, the shuttle landed in a large docking bay on the space station. Shepard wasn't prepared for the landing as her body pitched forward and back a bit. The Normandy, she suddenly remembered the fire on the Normandy, the energy beam that was tearing the ship apart and her body pitched forward and back when she was holding onto someone. Liara! Oh, God! Where is Liara?

Another name came. Admiral Kahoku, that was how she remembered Cerberus. And a sniper! A sniper was trying to kill Liara on the podium in the Citadel Tower, and Cerberus sent that sniper. God, Liara! What have they done to Liara? Shepard suddenly realized she was behind enemy lines, among terrorists and murders, in the company of alien haters and extremists.

Jacob had already jumped out of the shuttle and was talking with the pilot, but Miranda still stared at Shepard observing her every move and expression closely.

Shepard stood up and exited the shuttle. She waited for Miranda to jump out and she grabbed the dark haired woman from behind and put her pistol next to her head. Jacob and the pilot were startled, and the pilot started to move.

"Nobody moves! Or I will put a round in her head right now!" Shepard shouted. The pilot stopped.

Jacob's eyes widened. "Commander, what are you doing?"

"Cerberus is an enemy of the Alliance, a terrorist group. I don't know what you did to me, but I'm going to get out of here." Shepard motioned for the pilot and Jacob to move back. She moved with Miranda toward the cockpit door. "I'm taking this shuttle and everybody stay put." She dragged Miranda by her neck. Miranda choked. Jacob's arm flared with biotics instinctively. Miranda put up a hand quickly.

"No, Jacob. Don't hurt her."

"Smart lady." Shepard remembered what she was taught in her N7 training. When you're captured behind enemy lines, first you try to escape then sabotage to create an opportunity to escape. She felt lucky that she got the chance to escape so easily.

Miranda had her hands up in the air. She didn't want to grip on Shepard's arm because she was afraid of tearing the not completely healed skin. "Do you know where you are going once you take the shuttle? The Alliance already declared you KIA and everyone in the galaxy thinks you are dead."

Dead. The word struck Shepard. A floodgate opened, and fire was burning again on the Normandy. Then a shockwave pushed her away from her ship, and she was sucking air desperately. Dead.

Shepard's hand that was holding the pistol started shaking, then her other hand that was holding Miranda shook too. The pistol felt heavy in her hand, she was struggling for air. Shepard could hear her heart pounding behind her ears and her stomach cramped. She dropped the pistol and staggered to the shuttle door and leaned on it as she bent down halfway, her legs started to shake.

Miranda quickly came to her side and took Shepard's wrist to check her pulse. She instructed Jacob. "Get a cart over here, a thermal pack and some blankets. Prepare a room."

"A surgery room?"

"No, crew quarters with a comfortable bed."

Jacob jogged toward the large hall through the docking bay door. Miranda held on to Shepard, but Shepard shook off Miranda's hand. "Get your hands off me!" Her words were cold like icy shards.

Miranda let go of Shepard's arm. Shepard ran toward the back of the shuttle, and she dropped down on one knee as she lost feeling in her right hip again. She gripped the edge of the shuttle floor, trying to hold her body up. Trembling, she heard Miranda's boots clicking on the floor behind her. "Get up, Shepard!" She told herself. But mightily as she tried, Shepard couldn't control her body.

Miranda was next to her again. "If you need to throw up, don't fight it. It'll only tighten you stomach muscles and upset you more." Miranda grabbed hold of Shepard's free hand by the armpit and the forearm.

Too late, the enemy had hold on her again. Shepard's body pitched forward as she threw up on the floor. Miranda knew that there would be hardly anything to come out since Shepard hadn't consumed anything except a small amount of water, but she didn't expect the dry heaves that kept attacking Shepard's body. With each heave, Shepard's body bent down lower and lower until both of her knees and hands were on the floor.

Jacob and another in Cerberus medical uniform came running with a gurney. "What's happening to her?"

"She's cramping up. Help me." Miranda wrapped her arms around Shepard's back, and let Jacob take her legs and together they put Shepard on the cart. Shepard lay on her side and her body cramped into a fetal position. Miranda took the heat pad Jacob brought and activated a small button on the top of the pad. She put it next to Shepard's stomach. "Shepard, focus on the sound of my voice. Try to relax."

"Do we need to give her a shot?" Jacob asked while pushing the cart.

"No. Her body needs to adjust to the effects now. If I put her under, she'll go through this all over again" She turned to the other person. "Could you bring a neural scanner to the room?" Shepard still had periodic convulsions and she looked completely exhausted. Miranda covered her with a blanket. "She'll have the shivers soon."

Miranda's prediction was right on target. As soon as the dry heaves stopped, Shepard started shivering. Miranda was satisfied with the bed Jacob found in one of the crew quarters, and she covered Shepard with a thermal blanket.

"Why…" Shepard tried talking through her tightly shut jaw. "Why the shivers? What did you do to me?"

"Your body is going through movement for the first time in two years. It needs to re-establish connections between your brain and all the functions. Coming off anesthesia has its effects on your body as well. I just didn't expect it'd be this strong." Miranda sat in a small chair next to the bed and patted away the cold sweat on Shepard face with a damped towel. The warm and soft fabric felt good on her skin, Shepard's shivers started to slow down. Looking at the exhausted woman fighting hard to keep her eyes open, Miranda put a hand on Shepard's tightly clenched fists in front her chest. "Try to relax, I'm not going to hurt you and I'll not let anyone else hurt you." Miranda said softly, waiting for Shepard to fall asleep.

After Shepard fell into a deep slumber, Miranda performed full neural and brain scans. She was certain the physical functions were well within the range of her projections even with the unexpected early activation, but Shepard's actions based on her military training had been unexpected. And the psychological effects were harder to grasp. Miranda downloaded the data from the "Bekke Chip" as she dubbed it. The control chip with neural and electro wave recording functions had been most useful for her to study the patterns of her subject's brain activities and she thought she might rely on it even more now the subject's neural activities had been fully functional.

What she saw in her readings upset her. The spikes in the basic neurological response and the electromagnetic waves were disconcerting, and Miranda contributed this to early activation. She had a perfect plan for activating the subject, but that damn Wilson ruined everything!

"If she had gone into shock, two years of hard work could have gone down the drain in fucking 10 minutes." Miranda was ranting to Jacob. "Damn you, Wilson! I'm tempted to bring him back so that I can kill him again!"

Miranda slept in a sofa that Jacob brought into Shepard's room for her. She didn't want to leave the Commander alone or have the unfamiliar faces of security guards around her in case she woke up at night. Miranda felt she hadn't fully grasped Shepard's psyche since she woke up, and she couldn't risk the chance of the Commander suffering unnecessary stress. Shepard stirred, and Miranda woke up immediately.

The room had a warm orange glow from the floor lighting. Miranda turned on a small lamp on the table by the bed when she saw Shepard's green eyes staring at her. "Would you like some water?" Miranda had a bottle of water ready on the table. Shepard nodded. Miranda turned the cap to open the bottle for her.

Shepard downed the entire bottle and she lay back down. "Are we still on the Cerberus space station?" Her mind was going over the events that happened on this station. She was still here and she was still behind enemy lines. She sighed. "There are gaps in my memory."

Miranda took the empty water bottle from Shepard and covered her with the blanket again. "Don't worry. The memories will come back. This was entirely my fault. We shouldn't have activated you prematurely. I should have monitored the people under my charge more closely. You'll experience some pain, but your scars will heal and your memory will come back, I promise."

Shepard's eyes searched the room for exits and sharp objects. She knew she had lost the pistol. But one word caught her attention: "Activated."

"Am I a robot you built?"

"No, you're still the Commander Shepard you used to be, just with implants and enhanced physical abilities. We saved your life."

"You saved my life so you can imprison me."

"You're not a prisoner here."

"So I can leave any time I want."

"Yes, after you talk with my boss."

Candor or concealment, Shepard couldn't tell. The woman's demeanor had been calm, almost to the point of calculating, but she had not shown any hostile intent toward Shepard. She even showed some protectiveness. Shepard decided to chance it. She had to know!

"What did you do to Liara?"

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: Reunions of Old Friends


	12. Chapter 12 Reunions of Old Friends

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twelve – Reunions of Old Friends**

While Shepard wasn't sure how much she should trust what Miranda told her, she was quite certain that she could not trust what the Illusive Man was going to say.

"I know we had a history, Shepard." A veil of cigarette smoke surrounded the Illusive Man's projection in the QEC. "I'm hoping that was all water under the bridge, and we can move past it to work together."

"You were trying to kill one of my crew." Shepard didn't hide her anger.

"The means might seem barbaric, but our intentions were just." The Illusive man took another drag on his cigarette. "The fate of the galaxy was at stake."

"Nothing can justify taking an innocent life."

"Tell that to hundreds of thousands of innocent people who had disappeared on the human colonies the Collectors attacked. This is the biggest threat against humanity we've seen since Saren and Sovereign, and no one is doing anything about it." Another drag on his cigarette.

"So you built a super soldier to deal with the super threat." Shepard hadn't forgotten about Corporal Toombs and the thought what Cerberus might have done to bring her back to life disturbed her.

"Soldiers I have, plenty of them. I don't need a soldier. I need an inventor. You're a magician on the battlefield, you showed that in both Skyllian Blitz and Battle of the Citadel. You're a hero and an icon. People will follow you to their deaths. I built a general." The Illusive Man no doubt detected the thoughts behind Shepard's tone, but he didn't show any reaction.

"You know very well I've never had the education to be a general."

"Shepard, we both know that education is no substitution for intelligence. Let's agree that we're both intelligent enough to stop playing games and face the important task at hand."

He certainly had a way with words, if only they were his only weapons. "I've even found a pilot whom you may trust." The QEC light went dark as the Illusive Man pointed at the door. Shepard turned around and watched Joker limp in.

"Fancy meeting you here, Commander."

"Joker?" _Who else did they imprison? Did Cerberus get to the Normandy crew before the Alliance and scooped up everyone?_

But Joker told her an entirely different story. A story of denial: the leaders of the galaxy and the Alliance swept the Reaper threat under the rug. The enigmatic race who destroyed the Normandy had been attacking human colonies and left no trace and no bodies. And it seemed no one was doing anything about it. Shepard felt like she was right back where she started when she was trying to convince everyone what Saren was truly doing and why the entire galaxy had to get ready for an all out war. Only she wasn't facing just one man and his army this time around, she was facing an entire race.

"Check this out, Commander. A leather seat!" Joker was easy to please, but Shepard understood his excitement. Cerberus actually built a new Normandy and the Illusive Man was serious about waging a war on the Collectors. They certainly don't lack grandeur. You gotta give them that. But Shepard knew she wasn't a general, she was just a soldier, one woman and one ship. She'd need the help from the Council and Alliance if all she'd heard were true. "Oh, Commander, we're going to test forward batteries and all the canons with dummy buoys, so don't worry about the noise."

"Who's manning the battle stations?" Shepard asked Joker.

"Oh, you're going to like this one." It was good to see Joker's sarcasm still intact.

"That'd be me, Shepard." A sexy female voice came on as a blue orb popped up in the cockpit. "I run the ship's combat center. You can call me EDI."

Miranda offered to give her a tour of the new Normandy. "The SR-2 is faster, bigger and more comfortable." Miranda could hardly hide the pride in her voice.

Shepard was quiet during the tour. She couldn't blame Miranda for preferring the SR-2 to the SR-1. She didn't see the beauty of the old Normandy. How could she? She wasn't there. The new ship smelled different, sterilized, new paint and new oil, even the new leather on Joker's pilot seat reminded her this wasn't her old ship, her home. "This isn't the Normandy." She couldn't call Tali or Adams if she needed something from the Engineering or walk into the Armory without wondering what Williams was up to.

Forward guns fired. Shepard stopped, listening to the deep booming sound echoed through the ship. Miranda stood waiting for her patiently. The guns fired again and they sounded slightly different this time. Shepard looked at Miranda, but the Australian didn't understand her quizzing glance. Shepard missed Garrus. It wasn't just his delicate touch at calibrating the guns after each battle she missed, Garrus taught her how to tune her ears to the sound of battery echoes and hear the difference in each shot. EDI might run tests and programs but Shepard couldn't sit down with EDI with a bottle and swap stories of their past battles and women. "This isn't the Normandy." She sighed.

"That concludes our tour, Shepard. I know you're tired after a full day, and you still need a lot of healing. But before you rest, someone in the med bay wants to see you. And I will come by later to give you another neural scan." Miranda disappeared around the corner from the elevator, heading to Shepard's old captain's quarters.

The door to the med bay was bigger than the old one. Shepard paused in front of it for a moment. How could this be home when she knew she would not find the asari behind the med bay? Shepard didn't believe what the Illusive Man told her about her crew. She didn't believe they'd scattered and moved on instead of sticking together to continue their pursue of the Reapers and their agents. Though it wouldn't matter, this was still a Cerberus ship with one of the top Cerberus agents as an XO. Her first objective should be taking it back to the Alliance. Perhaps to the Arcturus Station or maybe straight to Earth, Shepard planned, after she got in touch with Admiral Hackett or Councilor Anderson. Is David still the human Councilor?

The door swooshed open and a room full of people stared at Shepard. Shepard hesitated. "Oh, am I interrupting a staff meeting?" At least a dozen crewmembers gathered inside the med bay, waiting for Shepard's visit. Some sat on the bio beds, others stood, chatting among themselves. When they saw Shepard at the door, everyone gathered together.

A voice came behind them. "Let me through." A woman with salt and pepper hair pushed her way through the crowd.

"Dr. Chakwas!" Shepard couldn't be more surprised. "What are you doing here?"

Karen Chakwas gave Shepard a warm hug and then led her into the med bay. "I'm trying to regain control of my sick bay, that's what I'm doing."

A thin woman with a short hair and skinny face walked in front of the crowd, holding a picture in her hand. "Commander Shepard, I'm crewman Webster. My family was on New Saigon and it was attacked a few weeks ago. My husband and my 5-year old disappeared during the attack, they just vanished, along with everyone on the colony. Nobody is looking for them." She showed Shepard the picture, a family portrait, as she pointed at the man and the child in the picture. "I'm told our mission is to investigate these attacks. Could you please keep an eye out for my family while you're on the ground?" Tears covered the woman's face.

A tall guy behind Webster patted the woman on the shoulder. "It's okay. Commander Shepard will find them. You can't ask for a better person to help us." The guy looked up at Shepard. "I'm crewman Rolston. My family lives on New Canton. We're lucky there haven't been any attacks on the colony yet, but my wife just had our baby a few months ago. My daughter is everything to me, I'll do anything to protect her." He brought out his own family picture and showed Shepard. "If you need me to do anything, no matter how dangerous, just give the order, Commander."

A red haired young woman moved closer to Shepard, "I'm Kelly Chambers, I'm your Yeoman on the Normandy. Two of my closest friends and their families live on Horizon. I've been trying to get them off the planet and return to Earth. Everyone is on edge these days if you live on a human colony in the frontier."

A man with a gruffly voice handed Shepard a small bag, "I'm the Mess Sergeant on this boat, Gardner is the name. I won't show you some picture, don't have one. My family lives in the frontier. Don't get me wrong. If someone wants to snatch my ex-wife, I'd say all the power to them. But my youngest is having a baby. A baby boy! Can you believe an old goat like me would be lucky enough to hold a grandson one day? So here are some cookies I baked for you, you know, for what you'll do for my future grandson." He pushed the bag into Shepard's hands and headed to the door. Everyone followed him.

Holding the cookies and a stack of photos, Shepard was speechless. This wasn't the Normandy she called home, but these people had families too. Families they left behind to do a job they believed in. Their trust in her gave Shepard no escape.

"Yeoman Chambers," Shepard issued her first order on the new Normandy. Everyone stopped and looked back to see what Shepard wanted. "Could you find a place where everyone on the ship can put up pictures of their loved ones who have gone missing? Also put some holders for small items in case they don't have pictures."

The Yeoman clicked her boots, "Yes, ma'am!" She took everything in Shepard's hands. "I'll do it right away, Commander. And I'll put these cookies in your cabin." Everyone said thank you as if Shepard had given them some sort of guarantee that their families and friends would be okay.

When the med bay returned to its normal quietness, Dr. Chakwas hugged Shepard again. "I can't believe you're really here." She led Shepard to her desk and pulled another chair for the Commander. "I went to your funeral. It's not every day you see someone coming back from…well." She took out a small picture of her own from her desk drawer and handed it to Shepard. "This was from your service."

It was a picture of Shepard's empty coffin draped in an Alliance flag. Shepard's hand shook. She stared at it for a while and then she pointed at the picture. "Whose medals were those on the coffin?"

Karen didn't need to look. "Every last one of us put the medals we had received for the Battle of the Citadel on your coffin." Tears ran down her face. "You were the hero, Shepard. Without you, I'm just an old fart patching people up on space ships for 30 years, Joker is just some disgruntled pilot whose talent would always be overlooked, and Ashley wouldn't know how to be a good space Marine without your guidance. Without you, we didn't deserve any of the medals."

"Is that why you're here, Karen?" Shepard's throat tightened up. "Following a hero you used to know?"

Karen Chakwas wiped her face of tears and her eyes turned sharp. "I'm here for the same reason as Joker and everyone else who used to know you. We're all here to make sure you get on that bloody escape pod this time! Plain and simple!"

When the attack on the SR-1 came, Dr. Chakwas and Lieutenant Pierce were playing with Mimi, Liara's cat. The med bay was quiet since the Normandy had been searching for geth activity for weeks without any sign of trouble. As soon as the order came to abandon ship, Dr. Chakwas and Pierce put the cat in her carrier that Garrus had made for her and went into an escape pod. After the Alliance team rescued them, Karen returned the cat to Liara, and that was the last time she saw the asari. Looking at Shepard's constant glance at the back door, Karen finally said. "It's no longer a lab. There is a big research lab up on the CIC level I can use. The room behind that door is the home for ship's AI core now." She paused for a moment, "What are your plans, Commander?"

"At first, my plan was to return this ship to the Alliance. But if what everyone is telling me turns out to be true, we've got to help these people. I'll think of something, but first, I want my crew back, we'll need everyone." She handed the picture back to Karen. "I'll get my family back together. You can count on it."

* * *

Aethyta was sitting at her desk on the Blue Sabre, cleaning her armor and her rifle. The battle on the Shadow Broker's decoy ship provided some excitement, but in the end, they didn't get to their intended target. As the Matriarch went over the events that happened in the last couple of weeks, one particular event shook her at the core, the visit to her old home. She had honestly expected never to see that place again, as she told Benezia, "You kick me out now, I'm never coming back here again." It was half bluff and half the truth how she really felt. As much as it hurt her to realize Benezia would actually let her go, she knew it would only hurt more if she came back to face her love's cold face after those parting words.

"There isn't anything in this world I wouldn't do for our daughter." Benezia reasoned.

"And that includes taking away her father before she's even born?" Aethyta was angry, more than angry. She never felt such a rage toward Benezia before.

"You know how people will look at her if they know she's a pureblood, Thyta. Do you think this doesn't hurt me?"

In the end, Benezia won. Benezia always won, but Aethyta saw that behind this particular madness, Benezia did it out of love and a mother's natural and extreme protectiveness. "Fine. I'll swear the damn blood oath." She took out a small dagger and cut her hand open.

Aethyta sat at her desk and ran her fingers along the long scar on her palm and sighed. She knew it took a lot for Benezia to do what she did, as crazy as it was, Aethyta could live with it and she had lived with it. But ever since Liara came back into her life, her balance had been thrown on the wayside. She knew she should come clean with Liara and she wanted nothing more. But she couldn't bring herself to tell Liara the whole story without knowing how her Nezzy died. The story of the Battle Above Noveria was hugely publicized thanks to Shepard's well planned and well rehearsed presentation with the Council, but what happened on Noveria before the battle was never revealed, and Aethyta knew that Nezzy had had a talk with Liara since the kid had the magic scarf. But would she want to make Liara go through the painful memory again? Would Aethyta be able to stand to watch the last movements of her love if Liara agreed to a memory meld? She was tempted to probe the possibility with Liara while staying at the T'Soni estate, but seeing the old Tank and remembering all the happy times she had spent with Benezia under that fruit tree shook her foundation, a foundation that she and Nezzy built together. She couldn't bear to touch the ruins of their old lives. It was too painful.

"Coward!" Aethyta called herself. All sins must be paid for. She had been paying for hers the only way she knew how, and that was to protect her daughter when her mother could no longer. That part was easy, it came with the common link in the DNA. "Fuck it! I'll tell her the truth." She fortified herself by voicing her resolve. _But will Liara accept it? Will she accept me?_

Onyx knocked on the door. "Matriarch, Thessia sent a messenger and the coordinates to meet her shuttle."

"Set the course."

Aethyta met Shiala at the shuttle bay. Shiala linked minds with Aethyta. Grand Matriarch Malayne's image appeared in Shiala's message. "I have a special task for you that I think you might like. After our meeting with the Oracle, all Matriarchs have agreed that we must gain more knowledge from the Protheans, and the best Prothean researcher is our kid. I have secured guarantees from the other Matriarchs that our kid would safe under our protection." The Grand Matriarch turned to face the windows. "There will be no untouchable societies or enduring structures if this impending war actually comes. Thyta, bring our kid to Tuchanka and show her the Prothean cache we collected on Illos. I've already sent out several other science teams to old Prothean worlds to see what they can dig up. We need her to help us. And when you're on Illium, buy more ships, warships this time. You're going to command a fleet!"

"Yes!" Aethyta couldn't help but to be excited about this task. Having Liara in the Tuchanka bunker would be much safer than having her out in the open on Illium.

"Set a course for Illium." This would be perfect! She would tell Liara the truth when they got to Tuchanka. Her father's homeland would lend her the strength she'd need. Aethyta had a smile on her face.

Once they arrived on Illium, Aethyta instructed the personnel from the Blue Sabre to research on deals of warships and set up meetings with a few vendors. Then she headed to the Eternity to put in a solid shift as a way of thanking Fern Gnor for helping save Fin 2's life. She'd meet with Liara tomorrow at the docks then she'd whisk her away from danger and hide her in the bunker on Tuchanka.

Walking into the stock room at Eternity, Aethyta grabbed more bottles for the bar. An asari with a delivery badge opened the back door and handed Aethyta an OSD. "Delivery of a full load of liquor. Sign this please." Aethyta was just about to say "Fern said he got the full load yesterday", but a needle sunk into her neck and everything went dark.

Liara finished her small lunch she'd brought from home and packed her pistol and turned on her personal tracker scrambler. "Nyxeris, I have a meeting at the docks if you need me for urgent matters." She talked through the intercom. No answer. Liara came to work early today and hadn't seen Nyxeris all morning. She walked out of her office and found the receptionist desk empty.

When she arrived at the docks, Seryna greeted her. "Captain, I've got the upgrades you ordered and we're ready to install them." Seryna handed her an OSD, "Your friend in red armor who would not give me her name said she'd like to install firewalls and hacking software to our ship's computer system."

Liara smiled while she looked at the OSD. "I suppose that would be a good idea. Let her do it."

Half an hour past their meeting time, Aethyta was still nowhere to be seen and Liara couldn't raise her on the comm. She contacted the Blue Sabre, and Onyx answered. "I thought the Matriarch had a meeting with you. Give us a minute to search for her tracker." All high level military personnel had implanted locators. Onyx came back with a location in the warehouse district. "The Matriarch maybe in trouble. Meet us at the location I'm sending you."

In a sprawling warehouse building that Nyxeris rented, Aethyta was tied up to a chair. Eclipse mercenaries Nyxeris hired for the week guarded the warehouse, but Nyxeris wanted the interrogation in one of the damp rooms down in the tunnel level, it'd be easier to dump the body afterwards into the sewer that ran below the tunnels. The Shadow Broker had given her a new task: find out who sold out the asari Spectre. And after this job, she could kill Liara if she wished. The credits the Shadow Broker promised were good, but Nyxeris would have done it for free. She had already planned out how she'd kill the pureblooded bitch.

"Nyxeris, I'm guessing you didn't invite me here for tea." Aethyta woke up from the sedatives and her eyes turned icy when she saw Nyxeris standing in front of her.

"The Shadow Broker wants to know who sold out the Spectre that works for him. You tell the truth, I spare you the pain. You know, for Liara's sake."

"I tell you the truth, you put a bullet in my head. You thought I was born only a hundred years ago. And if you mention Liara's name one more time, I'll make sure your end would be much more painful than anything you know."

Nyxeris bent down, and she put her hands on the arms of the chair Aethyta was tied to and put her face close to Aethyta's. "Liara is the biggest fool I've ever known. I've been under her nose this whole time, sending her into traps, yet she still trusts me."

Aethyta's nose was breathing fire. The betrayal of someone you trusted was always the most hurtful, and Aethyta would like to repay that with pain. Aiming at Nyxeris' smirking face, Aethyta put her back to her movement and head butted Nyxeris squarely in the nose. The bone cracked in Nyxeris' nose, and the Observer fell backward and lay on the floor holding her bloody nose and face. Two Eclipse mercs held Aethyta in her chair waiting for orders.

When Nyxeris finally got up from the floor, her eyes were burning from her own blood splattering into them. She walked over to the figure sitting in the chair, and without hesitation, she swung her fist into Aethyta's face. Aethyta fell sideways onto the floor dragging the chair with her. Aethyta made no sound, lying still on the floor. Nyxeris stood over her. "You fucking barbarian! What are you? A krogan? Who head butts?" Still no sound from Aethyta, Nyxeris walked even closer. Before she could lift her leg and kick the asari on the floor, Aethyta quickly swept her leg sideways and kicked Nyxeris on the side of her knee, sending her straight into the wall.

If Nyxeris hadn't reacted fast enough to bring up her biotics to push off the wall, she'd have collided with it and it would have smashed her bones and skull. Nyxeris fell down on the floor, screamed in pain while holding her knee. When she stopped screaming, she told the two Eclipse mercs to put the chair back up and tie Aethyta tighter to it. Aethyta was laughing. "The torturer shouldn't look worse than the tortured, don't you think? But you look a lot worse than me from where I'm sitting."

Nyxeris unsheathed a dagger from one of the mercs' boot, and sunk it into Aethyta's thigh. Aethyta muffled a scream. "Who's looking worse now?" Nyxeris stood back, and she turned to the mercs behind her, "Get me an ice pack, you idiots!"

Liara was getting impatient waiting outside the building after the squad of commandos took out the two Eclipse guards. G.G. was running a hacking program on the door. "Why can't we just blow the door with explosive? It'd be faster." Liara could feel something was very wrong, first Nyxeris didn't show up at work, then the Matriarch, and she was almost certain this was the Shadow Broker's doing.

Nightshade offered, "I can get into the building, but it'll probably be slower." She put a hand on Liara's shoulder, "Liara, the Matriarch will be okay. She's tough and she knows how to deal with the situation." That didn't relax Liara but she gave Nightshade a grateful nod. It was handy that the assassin was working on Liara's ship and wanted to come along.

They finally made it through the door and got into the control room upstairs. G.G. turned on the lights in the building and Onyx led her commandos into the rooms. Liara and G.G. searched camera feeds while Nightshade took to the vents. "Someone always hides in the vents, unless this place has tunnels underneath. I'll check the vents."

Liara reloaded her pistol, "I will check the tunnels." G.G. gave her a comm link.

In the dark tunnels, Liara paused for a moment to adjust her eyes. The long straight hallway had no lights but some rooms along the hallway had lights on as a faint white glow leaked through the doors. Liara checked each room that had lights on and when she entered the last room, she saw a figure lying on the floor strapped to a chair. Liara first checked the room, no guards. They must have heard the alarm and left. Liara slowly walked closer to the figure, and she sucked in air. "Matriarch!"

Aethyta's face was a mess. Blood that trickled down her forehead from the head butt had painted branches on her face and dried up. Fresh blood leaked out slowly from the cuts Nyxeris gave her, and she was also bleeding through her nose and mouth. A knife stuck in her thigh, blood soaking the torn fabric of her clothing. Liara took out her knife of Varren's Tooth and cut the thick ropes that bounded Aethytha's arms to the back of the chair. She knelt down next to the Matriarch and slid her hand under the side of Aethyta's neck and carefully sat her up.

Aethyta was cold when she woke up on the floor. She couldn't tell how long she'd been out or where Nyxeris went. When she felt a warm hand holding her neck, she tried to open her eyes. "Liara," She grunted.

"Don't talk, Matriarch. Save your strength. You lost a lot of blood. I will call for help." Liara said gently while supporting the Matriarch's head with her shoulder.

"It was…" Aethyta grunted again. It was hard to keep her eyes open and even harder to push the words out. "Nyxeris. She works for… the Shadow Broker." Seeing Liara's eyes widen, Aethyta forced herself to smile. "It's okay…kiddo. I'll protect you." Her hand felt heavy, but she moved it to the knife in her leg and tried to pull it out. "I can still walk, help me…"

Liara put her hand on top of Aethyta's and took Aethyta's hand into her own. "No, the commandos are upstairs, they will be down here soon. You just stay with me."

"Stay with you…" Aethyta could hardly hold her eyelids open. She fought to hold onto Liara's hand, but her hand was shaking and she was powerless to stop it. "You can always ask me, kiddo. I'll stay with you for as long as you need me to."

Liara helped Gauze and G.G. carry the Matriarch to the shuttle, and watched it head straight to the Blue Sabre. She returned to find that Nightshade had captured Nyxeris who was indeed hiding in the vents. Nightshade was talking to Liara, but Liara wasn't listening. All she wanted to do was break Nyxeris' neck. Onyx nodded to Fin 1 and Fin 2, the commandos held Liara back by her arms.

"Why?" Liara shouted at Nyxeris.

"Why?" Nyxeris jerked the shackles the commandos had put on her. "Because the Shadow Broker gave the order, because you killed my Hemerit and I want revenge!"

"Why didn't you kill me? Why did you hurt the people around me?" Liara was struggling against the two Fins who were trying to keep her away from the prisoner. "I trusted you!"

"That's because you're the biggest fool that ever lived. You managed to cross one of the most powerful figures in the galaxy. And for what? A dead woman who would never return?"

Liara's biotics suddenly exploded. Two Fins tumbled backwards, and thick energy spikes glowed in Liara's hands. As Liara made her biotic throw, Nightshade erected an energy shield around Nyxeris to block Liara's attack. Nightshade held the shield while trying to persuade the angry maiden. "Liara, we need her alive! She knows where the Shadow Broker's base is and she knows where Feron is. We need to get that information."

Liara's rage was still racing through her, she furrowed her brows and pushed harder against Nightshade's defenses. Nightshade stood in front of Nyxeris as her protective shield crumbled under Liara's crushing power. "Liara, listen to me! You promised to help me reunite with Feron. Remember your promise!"

When the biotic sparks finally dimmed, Nyxeris let out a sigh of relief. Nightshade turned around and pushed Nyxeris into a wall, knocking her unconscious. "Who said you could relax?"

Onyx offered, "We can take her to our brig, but I think that's too good for her." Her comment earned surprised looks from her squad.

Nightshade grabbed the Broker's agent on the floor. "I have a safe house where I can interrogate her."

Liara smirked. "I am coming with you and I will enjoy watching this."

* * *

After getting the Matriarch to the doctors on the Blue Sabre, G.G. and all four Fins went to shop for ships as the Matriarch instructed. A sales clerk was playing a demo of a warship's CIC functions for the commandos at a busy kiosk. G.G. saw a salarian standing by the neighboring kiosk and she almost went into a panic. The salarian pointed his head toward Eternity and took off. Fin 2 saw the exchange, "Who was that?"

It startled G.G. when Fin 2 spoke, "Oh, he's an old friend. May I can take a little break and talk to him?" Fin 2 nodded and watched G.G. jog to the bar.

Inside the Eternity bar, G.G. found the salarian. "How is my mother?"

The salarian handed her a small locket, G.G.'s heart sunk. This could only mean one thing: her mother was dead.

G.G.'s mother had suffered from a rare neurological disorder. When she melded, she couldn't end the meld and the other person had to sever the link. That wouldn't be so bad except that her mind gave too much of itself such that it could be fatal if the link wasn't severed. She had only melded with asari and only with those who had strong minds. One exception was her daughter.

G.G.'s mother had kept her condition from her daughter. When G.G. asked her why they didn't meld like her friends and their mothers, her mother always found excuses to deflect the curiosity. G.G. felt the natural desire to meld with her mother, as her desire intensified her mother finally agreed to a meld but warned G.G. that she had to cut the link when her curiosity was satisfied. G.G. remembered the wonders of her mother's mind, so many places, so many people, and the melding itself was fascinating. Like a kid walking in a museum, she wandered in the endless halls filled with adventure. The most enticing things were the emotions she felt for the first time from her mother. The love and devotion her mother had for her was so deep that G.G. felt both overwhelmed and comforted. She also saw the love between her mother and her father, another asari she never knew. Her heart pounded when she could sense the intensity of that love, and she couldn't stop and wanted to probe more. That feeling, experiencing the love between two people, drove her deep into her mother's mind. She didn't want to stop.

G.G. didn't know how long she had melded with her mother, but when she finally ended the meld, she found her mother unconscious on the floor, bleeding from her nose. Her mother eventually recovered and told G.G. never to meld with her or anybody else again. G.G. listened to her mother and kept herself from melding for decades until a teacher at school suggested a knowledge meld. The teacher had assured her that she'd only show G.G. the information for her schoolwork and to block everything else. The result of the meld was devastating, the teacher had such a hard time that she screamed from her headache when she tried to sever the link, and G.G.'s mind went into overdrive while trying both to grasp every ounce of knowledge in her teacher's mind and invite her teacher to explore all of hers. When the link was severed, G.G. passed out with her nose bleeding and her body went into small seizures.

With the help of a relative, G.G. and her mother found a salarian doctor who specialized in asari neurology. "Intriguing! How to cure an Ardat Yakshi?" The salarian took on the challenge. It took him years but eventually he built an implant for G.G. that suppressed her urge to meld and turned off the switch during a meld if her mind wandered into another's too deeply or if it became too inviting. It wasn't a cure, but the implant had given G.G. the chance to live in the general population instead of imprisoned in some facility, but it also cost her dearly. The salarian doctor didn't want credits for G.G.'s implant, he wanted G.G.'s mother as his study subject. Her condition was extremely rare and it was a neurologist's dream to have access to such a patient let alone a willing participant.

"The Goddess had larger designs for you, my child." Her mother said to her before moving into the salarian's medical facility and that was the last time G.G. ever saw her mother.

"Years of study, I got nothing to show for it." The salarian sat across the table from G.G. in the Eternity bar. "It was a dead end. Her condition was too rare. All the papers I've published, nobody cared. It was all for nothing."

"How could you say that? You kept her there for so long, you must have developed something. She believed in you, she believed your study would help people like her." G.G. clenched tightly onto her mother's locket.

"Well, it seems the best thing I've ever come up with was the implant in the back of your neck. I've talked with a monastery that is very interested in investing in such implant. So I need to extract it from you and try to duplicate it."

"You can't do that! What happens to me if you take it out? I might hurt people!"

"I can put you in solidary confinement at my facility."

"How long will it take for you to duplicate the implant?"

"A few years to build and test on live subjects. Asari medical board has strict rules for neural implants."

"Why can't you build a new one like you did for me?"

"I need a live subject to do that. The monastery wouldn't send me one and I have no way of catching another Ardat Yakshi on my own."

"What if I say no?"

"Well, you can't say no. I only have to send your superior an email to reveal who you really are. Think about it, give me a few years then you can go back to your normal life; or I expose who you are and your life is ruined. Which one would you pick? I'll give you 48 hours." He had called G.G. his "quiet success", it would seem that he no longer wished to keep it quiet.

Outside the bar by a kiosk, Fin 2 nodded to Fin 1, "Hey, you see that salarian guy sitting with G.G.? He's making her nervous."

Fin 1 observed the two chatting figures. "How can you tell?"

"When G.G.'s nervous she always touches the back of her neck. She's done that many times since they started talking."

Fin 1 nodded. "What do you think we should do?"

Fin 2 opened the small toolkit G.G. left with her. "I want to put a tracker on him, in case he's up to no good."

When G.G. left Eternity, she ran straight back to the Blue Sabre. She didn't even notice the Fins who were watching her. Fin 1 slapped Fin 2 on her arm, "Go after G.G. and find out what happened. I'll put the tracker on the salarian."

In G.G.'s tiny electronics lab, Fin 2 found the young maiden sitting at her desk and crying. "G.G., you okay?"

The young commando was startled. She quickly wiped her face of tears and smiled. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Tell me what's wrong." Fin 2 walked over and sat next to her. Fresh tears came as G.G. took out a locket.

"It's my mother. She died."

"Goddess! When? How?" G.G. could only cry. Fin 2 took G.G. into her arms and let her cry. When her sobbing slowed, Fin 2 asked. "You need to take bereavement leave to take care of things?"

"No, she died some time ago. I've only just got the news."

"From that salarian you called old friend?"

"Yes. He'd been busy. He only had time to bring me the news now. I just talked to her a few months ago. She went on a new treatment and she couldn't talk me after that." The truth was G.G. couldn't get through to her mother. The medical staff at the facility took her calls and told G.G. that her mother was either getting her treatment or in therapy.

"So she'd been ill?" Fin 2 asked.

"For a long time."

"What does the salarian want?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." G.G. tried to mask the nervousness in her voice. "He's just an old friend who knew my mother."

"Yeah, you said." Fin 2 wasn't buying it.

After Fin 2 left G.G.'s lab, she raised Fin 1 on her comm. "I smell something fishy here, we need to talk to the salarian. I get a feeling he has bad intentions toward G.G. and G.G. is too scared to tell me anything. I want to find out why and protect G.G."

Fin 1 answered, "Got it. We've got a tracker on him."

Fin 2 warned her friends, "No matter what we do, don't let G.G. find out until we know what's going on."

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: Dreams of the Daughters


	13. Chapter 13 Dreams of the Daughters

**Second Life**

**Chapter Thirteen – Dreams of the Daughters**

Ashley Williams hadn't been on the Citadel for quite some time. There were no missions there and she didn't want to spend her shore leave at a place where landmarks reminded her of what she'd lost and where there were people she no longer cared to see.

The artificial light on the Citadel had turn into a harsh orange at sunset, slanting sharply across the metal buildings on the Presidium, casting shadows on the manmade lakes below. Ashley was still early. She called Shiala to meet her here on the Citadel. Hannah Shepard seemed to think that Liara knew something, something about Shepard. Ashley knew that if anyone would know where Liara was, it would be Shiala.

"L.T.!" Someone behind her yelled. It was a familiar face but she couldn't remember his name. They served together for a while after Ashley's tour on the Normandy. "L.T.! Let me buy you a drink." The guy introduced Ashley to his friends, who were apparently on shore leave. Ashley let them drag her to the Dark Star Lounge. Why not, at least the grunts watched her back once and she'd bled with them.

Shiala was a little late to the meeting with Ashley. She had been very busy with delivering messages for the Grand Matriarch. It was comforting to see Thessia doing something about the Reaper threat. Nobody knew more about what Benezia had sacrificed on Sovereign than Shiala, and she didn't want the Matriarch's sacrifice to mean nothing. Shiala was surprised to get Ashley's call, but she wanted to see her old friend and provide any help she could. After all, Ashley was the one who helped her through the first Thorian indoctrination withdrawal, who had been kind to her all that time when she was on the Normandy.

Well past meeting time, and still no Ashley. Shiala called the Marine on her comm. Noisy background sounds came along with Ashley's voice. She was at a bar drinking with her old Marine buddies. Shiala agreed to meet her there and made her way to the Wards. When Shiala got to the bar, it was already jam-packed. It was impossible to find anyone or hear anything on the comm.

Ashley was at a counter playing a drinking game with strangers. She had lost track of her friends who took her here. But it didn't matter. She had never backed down from a challenge, and this intoxicated challenge is almost as intoxicating as anything she'd done in a long while. She had drunk two groups of challengers down on the floor. "Anyone else?" The bartender signaled a bouncer over, and the bouncer took Ashley's arm.

"You've had enough. Let someone else have a little fun." He dragged her toward the door. Ashley was unsteady on her feet but she struggled free of the big human. The bouncer tried to grab her again, and Ashley hit his face. The bouncer didn't even flinch, and he tightened his large fist and hit Ashley on the side of her face, knocking her down on the floor. People stopped dancing around them and they cleared the way for the bouncer to drag the incapacitated woman to the door.

Shiala was standing right by the door where Ashley was kicking and screaming while being dragged by her uniform collar. Shiala stopped the bouncer. "I came to collect her. You can let her go." The bouncer didn't stop. Shiala flared her biotics and lifted a large table behind him. "Be smart. I'm here to take your trouble away." The bouncer looked at the heavy metal tablet hovering in the air for a minute and dropped Ashley on the floor. Shiala put Ashley's arm over her shoulders and walked her out of the dark nightclub.

She had no other place but her shuttle on the Citadel, so Shiala took Ashley to her shuttle. At least she'd made her shuttle into a more comfortable craft with a pleasant living space. It had a small kitchen and a soft bed since she was spending so much time traveling as a messenger for the Matriarchs and the Tuchanka Project. She put Ashley on her bed, but Ashley didn't stay down. She headed straight to the bathroom and emptied her stomach contents.

Watching the woman suffering through the aftermath of a night's binge, Shiala saw neither pleasure nor solace in Ashley's body language. She helped the human back to her bed, and she took out a small med-kit and started to clean Ashley's face that had a cut and now was developing a shiner. Seeing the sweaty and wrinkled uniform, Shiala put a hand on Ashley's shoulder. "Take off your uniform. I'll bring you some more comfortable clothing." Ashley didn't say anything, only obeyed.

Shiala made tea in her small kitchenette and brought to Ashley. "Drink. There are herbs in it that will settle your stomach." She left no room for argument. Ashley drank the tea.

"How did you get over the death of Benezia?" Ashley seemed more sober than her dilated eyes indicated.

Shiala paused and then resumed her gentle rubbing of medi-gel on the cut. "I never did. I still live with it everyday." She looked at Ashley and understood the reason she asked that question. "In a way, having the Thorian's pain in the following days of the Matriarch's death helped me. That and your caring for me, Ashley. You were very strong when everyone was afraid of me, afraid of being near me."

Ashley let out a bitter laugher. "That Ashley is dead and gone!" She lay down on Shiala's bed. "This is the new Ashley now, a drunk and a fuck up, a drunken fuck up." The alcohol's affect was still in her system.

"That's how I felt too after I got off Sovereign. I was a fuck up, otherwise why would the Matriarch give me up. If I was useful at all to her, she'd have kept me with her." Shiala sat on the edge of the bed.

Ashley sat up in bed. "Hey, you want to show me how you fucked up and I'll show you mine?" Her voice was almost giddy, like they were two little girls swapping date stories.

Shiala hung her head and sighed. "You want to meld with me to see how I faltered in the biggest defining moment of my life?"

"Melding?" Ashley's voice sounded more sober now. "Oh, I didn't think of that. Not been around any asari lately. Sure, meld with me and show me how you 'faltered'."

_In the dark halls of Sovereign, Saren had his hand on Benezia's neck. "How could you lose to a human?" Saren was choking the Matriarch. Shiala's hand crackled with energy and she pulled Saren off Benezia with her biotic pull. The Matriarch fell on the floor, coughing and trying to catch her breath. _

_"You put your filthy talons on her again..." Standing between the turian and her mentor, Shiala pushed the words out through her gritted teeth. The energy ball still danced in her hand and her legs spread into a battle stance. _

_Saren's mandibles twitched, his hand on the pistol that was still in its holster. He was assessing his chances against this well trained commando._

_"No." A shaky voice came from behind Shiala. "Shiala, don't. Stand down." The Matriarch ordered weakly. _

_Shiala moved back slowly toward the Matriarch, but her eyes never left Saren's hand on the pistol. When she stood next to the Matriarch who was still on the floor, Shiala spoke in a low but firm voice. "I won't stand by and watch him hurt you!" The energy ball was still crackling in her hand. "If he thinks he can touch you again, he'll have to go through me first!"_

_"He touches my spine with his mind, he touches my ears with his voice. Shiala, it's no use to resist." There was despair in the Matriarch's voice, but Shiala didn't want to let go, her hand continued to crackle. _

_Saren took advantage of her hesitation and walked over. He grabbed the asari, one in each hand and he pushed them into the wall in a fiery rage. "You bunch of imbeciles!"_

_Flying toward the bulkhead, Shiala noticed the Matriarch didn't flare her biotics. Shiala quickly put a stasis field around the Matriarch to stop her body from colliding with the hard metal. But her own body hit the wall and the bones on her arm cracked. She screamed from the pain as her body came down. The Matriarch rushed over to her and gathered Shiala into her arms. "Shiala!" Shiala could only scream from the pain. _

"I faltered when I could have killed him. It would have been so easy. I might have saved the Matriarch and the galaxy. But at that crucial moment, I hesitated, I faltered." Why didn't she do it? The question tore at her still after all this time.

_Before the Normandy was attacked, Ashley was cleaning combat gear in the armory while chatting with Charlie and two other Marines. When the first jolt came, the engine room immediately caught fire. Ashley, Charlie and the other Marines rushed in there to get Tali, Adams and the other crewmembers out. When the order came to abandon ship, Ashley directed her Marines to the escape pods. Two more hits came, and the smell of burning was everywhere. As the last few escape pods were loaded and ejected, Liara wanted to go back and get Shepard, but Ashley stopped her. "Shepard can take care of herself. She'll get Joker and there's an escape pod up there." Liara hesitated. Ashley urged her, "Come on, Liara! We're the last ones, let's go!" The view of the Normandy explosion flashed through the escape pod window, little did she know it took Shepard with it. If only she had let Liara to fetch Shepard or she had gone herself to fetch the Commander._

Shiala's eyes cleared up from black but tears followed. "You don't know if any of you could have saved Commander Shepard. You could have died too, or Liara." Shiala reasoned.

"Bullshit! I should have gone after her. I should have dragged her ass into the escape pod. I was supposed to watch her back! Before Kaidan died, he and I made a pact: one of us will always watch Shepard's back. That was my one and only job. To fucking watch her back! And I fucked that up, I fucked that up royally!" Ashley hadn't cried for Shepard's death, not even at her funeral. But tears came out like a floodgate had opened. Shiala instinctively reached out, but Ashley pushed her arms away. "I'm such a fuck up! Nothing you say can change that."

Shiala caught both Ashley's wrists and held on to them tightly while Ashley struggled against her. When she stopped struggling, Shiala let Ashley's wrists go and wrapped her arms around Ashley's back. "It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was!" Ashley's cry was so loud that not even Shiala's shoulder could muffle the sound. Shiala held onto Ashley tightly as she cried. The asari closed her own eyes remembering how Ashley had held her on the Normandy after she was rescued from the Thorian. She leaned her head against Ashley's and stroked the back of Ashley's neck.

When the human finally stopped crying, she looked exhausted. Shiala wetted a towel and gave to Ashley to clean her face, and then she let Ashley lie down again. She went to the bathroom to clean the towel and took a deep breath herself. Seeing Sovereign in her own memory and watching the Normandy burning reminded her those old wounds, they were buried deep but they were still there.

Shiala returned to sit on the edge of her bed again. Ashley's eyes were closed. Shiala pushed a stray strand from Ashley's face lightly as she sighed, and then she bent down and kissed Ashley on her forehead. Ashley opened her eyes and put her lips on Shiala's.

Shiala was caught by surprise and pulled back. She searched Ashley's eyes, they were pleading like a wounded animal seeking shelter and protection. Shiala took Ashley's face with both hands gently, "Everything will be okay." She wanted to protect her. She gingerly touched Ashley's lips with her own as though she was afraid to break a delicate flower petal.

Ashley didn't do anything half hearted when she set her mind to it, a fight, a drinking game, a kiss. She had done the drinking and fighting tonight, she wanted to kiss the asari who shared so much grief with her, with whom she let herself cry. She had been inside of her defenses. Ashley sat up and grabbed Shiala's neck and met Shiala's lips fully with her own. Her heart raced and she felt heat radiating from her stomach to her entire body. When she finally stopped the kiss, Ashley was panting and her body felt fatigued.

Shiala put a hand on Ashley's face. "Ashley, you're tired. You need to rest." Ashley lowered her eyes and nodded. "I'll get you a little more tea and then you can sleep here." Shiala went to the kitchen to make more tea. She had to steady herself with a hand on the bulkhead. Ashley's kiss stirred something in her that she had long pushed into the background, and she could feel her own face burning.

Shiala gave Ashley another small cup of tea and helped the human lie down comfortably and covered her with a blanket. When she stood to put the teacup back to the kitchen, Ashley grabbed her hand. "Please don't go." Shiala put the teacup on the floor and sat back down.

"I don't want to be alone tonight. Please don't let me be alone." Ashley was drifting off.

No, Shiala wouldn't leave Ashley in her current state. Ashley didn't leave her side when she was twitching from the pain caused by the Thorian. She didn't leave her alone even when Shiala went back to Sovereign's mind after coming back from Omega's mining rock. Ashley was there when Shiala needed help the most. "I'll stay with you for as long as you need, Ashley." Shiala lay down next to Ashley and held the human tightly in a full body embrace and touched her face with gentle strokes. "Sleep. You'll feel all better in the morning."

* * *

Freedom's Progress had an eerie feeling. Unlike the first SR-1 ground mission on Eden Prime, this place didn't have the smell of death yet nothing was moving and nothing was alive. The air was dank after sunset as Shepard moved in front of Miranda and Jacob, through empty buildings in unrelieved grey. Shepard was well aware that this mission was a dress rehearsal for real combat and a test of her abilities to lead. When the mechs started their attack, tactical decisions came naturally and combat actions were fluid. She knew Miranda was watching her every move and evaluating her every decision, and when they finished the mechs, Shepard also knew she went through the first test with flying colors.

But before she had time to smirk, a group of quarians was pointing their guns at her and her squad. And most surprisingly, one of them was Tali'Zorah. Shepard almost choked Tali when she hugged the quarian so hard. "What are you doing here, Tali?"

Tali coughed a little. "Shepard, you're choking me." When Shepard let go of her, Tali gave orders to her team. "You can lower the guns pointing at my old Commander now, but keep them on the Cerberus goons."

The heighten tension between the quarians and the Cerberus operatives told Shepard something had happened between the Migrant Fleet and Cerberus. She looked at her own armor that had Cerberus insignia and wished she had her old N7 armor back. The two sides finally settled down after Shepard persuaded Miranda to let the quarians take Veetor back to the Migrant Fleet and instead provide Veetor's recording to the Cerberus operatives. After everyone lowered their guns, Shepard took Tali outside into the courtyard.

In the grey light of the quiet courtyard, two friends stared at each other; neither could believe their eyes. "Why are you with Cerberus?"

"They brought me back from death. I spent two years on an operating table. They want me to work with them."

"For whose goals? To what end?" Tali couldn't move her eyes from the glowing red scars on Shepard's face.

"To investigate these attacks." Shepard checked out Tali's new suit. "What about you? I could use your help, Tali. I plan to put our old team back together."

"I can't, Shepard. I have a very important mission to prepare for. It'll be in geth territory. This trip was just a temporary assignment. I believe the Migrant Fleet is preparing for war with the geth. I could be wrong, but I don't think so."

"And the quarians still haven't made peace with the geth. What a surprise!" Shepard didn't expect Tali to turn her down without a thought.

"I see you've improved your sarcasm." Tali put a hand on her hip. "Peace cannot exist in the future when war laid in the past and the pain is still in the present. For the quarians, this is just another battle in that long-ago conflict."

"I see you've gained wisdom." Shepard stared at Tali. The young quarian had changed, less nervous, more self-assured. She had grown up fast, too fast. Shepard sighed. "Why did one of your guys call you Crazy Tali?"

"I went to Rannoch after your funeral. Do you remember telling me you wish I had a home world?" Tali moved her gaze back to Shepard.

"I was drunk at the time." Shepard shook her head. Tali had gone crazy.

"We both were." The quarian chuckled. She managed to shock Shepard in their first meeting.

"Did you go by yourself?"

"Yes, I couldn't risk anyone else's life but my own. The trip made me understand one thing: why my father wanted to chase the geth out of Rannoch and our old colonies. He bottled up everything since my mother died. I think the dream of reclaiming Rannoch has kept him going all these years." Tali saw Shepard's features change, still shocked but something else too.

"It's not enough to just live your life, Shepard. You have to have hopes and dreams to live for. To my people, the biggest dream is to have a home to go back to. Think of it this way, Shepard. If the Reapers take out your ship, you move on to another ship. But if they come after Earth, you'd never give up defending it even if it means digging trenches and throwing every soldier at the enemy. We want to dig those trenches to defend our homes too, but first we have to have a home."

"So your father sends you on these crazy missions so that you can restart the war with the geth?" Shepard couldn't help but admire this new Tali, but a war between two old foes at this crucial time when the Reaper threat loomed large scared Shepard.

"He might have enlisted me to follow his dream at first, but now I'm a volunteer in his dream. I've decided to help him. Not to just take orders from him, but to really help him. I've made his dream mine." Tali's voice was unwavering.

"That's why you can't join me. You have your own dream to chase."

"That and Cerberus. Shepard, a lot has changed in two years. The geth were not the only source of our turmoil. Cerberus had attacked the Migrant Fleet as well. Now you understand my hostility toward your Cerberus comrades."

Shepard's heart was sinking as Tali's voice sharpened until there was an edge to it. _She's pulling away from me. She doesn't need me anymore, and she doesn't know how much I need her support. _Shepard suddenly missed her old life and her old self.

As though Tali had heard Shepard's thought, "The past never leaves us, Shepard."

Shepard forced a smile. She turned to Tali and held Tali's facemask with both hands as she put her own face close to it. "Who are you and what have you done with my little Tali?"

Tali laughed whole-heartedly for the first time in a long while. "That Tali is still here, trust me." She took out a small bundle of soft fabric and unwrapped it.

Shepard took the old suit filter she'd given Tali for her birthday and her heart ached. "You still have it!"

"It gave me solace while you were gone and it also gives courage when I'm scared." Tali's voice was softer now.

"You're right. Our past never leaves us. Some times even death can't stop that." Shepard handed the filter back to Tali.

Tali wrapped the filter with the fabric carefully and put it back in her pocket. "But at least now I know if I run into trouble, someone will come and rescue me."

Shepard could feel tears coming and they stung her eyes that still glowed faint red from the implants. She turned her face away but wrapped her arm around Tali. "You know I'll do anything for you, Tali. You're family even if you're not on the Normandy."

Watching the quarian shuttle speed away, Shepard felt her heart pounding. It was amplified by the emptiness she felt in her stomach. She clenched her jaw.

"Shepard, what's wrong?" Miranda had been watching two old friends chatting through the open door, and when Tali and quarians took off for their shuttle, Miranda joined Shepard in the courtyard. She saw perspiration on Shepard's face and her features were immobile. Her eyes were tightly shut and her jaw tightened. Miranda immediately took Shepard's shoulders. "Shepard, can you talk? Can you move your head?" Shepard finally moved her arm and tried to get free of Miranda. But instead she fell into the Australian, and Miranda caught her.

"I can't…feel my right hip again. And my head feels like it's going to explode."

"I'm taking you back to the Normandy and giving you a full scan." Miranda hailed their shuttle.

In the Normandy's med bay, Miranda was pacing while Dr. Chakwas sat watching her. They'd sent Shepard back to her quarters to rest after she had regained feeling of her right hip and her intense headache had receded. "I don't understand!" Miranda's pacing hadn't helped her solve the puzzle. "There is nothing wrong with her physically, her right hip has healed just as well as her left. Her brain functions are all normal. The only thing that showed an anomaly was in her neural scan that the Bekke chip recorded, right after Tali and the quarians left. It just doesn't make any sense. What am I doing wrong?"

Dr. Chakwas shook her head, "She's fine physically, but have you considered her psychological state?"

"It's well within functional range. You should have seen her on Freedom's Progress. Her decisions were quick and her reactions were spot on. She's more than fit for combat and has full capacity to lead." Miranda answered proudly.

Dr. Chakwas stood up and stopped Miranda from pacing. "Miranda, you're an extraordinary scientist for what you've achieved with Shepard's body, but you don't know the first thing about Shepard as a person."

Miranda was silent.

"Have you thought about the psychological ramifications of meeting with Tali had on Shepard?" Dr. Chakwas had a clear picture of that.

How could she be so dense? Miranda's mind was racing. Of course! She had built psychological profiles for her subject, but it contained more about battle psychologies and the dramatic distress of war than anything else. She just realized that she needed to add more interpersonal psychology.

Miranda found this realization profoundly dislocating. How could she miss such an important aspect of Shepard's psyche? Was she too focus on the mission? Well, that was her boss told her to do, "Focus on the mission, nothing else matters", could he be wrong? Or was this a flaw she didn't notice in Shepard before? A flaw that let the strongest person in the galaxy cling to old feelings and loss? Or did she not think Shepard had flaws? Michelangelo saw flaws in his subjects and what would Van Gogh be if he didn't see the flaws in his subjects? Why didn't I think of this before?

Seeing Miranda stand still and silent, Dr. Chakwas added. "Tali was the little sister Shepard never had. Anything Tali wanted, Shepard did her best to give her, weapons, engine parts, advice, you name it. Shepard never hid how proud she was of Tali, in fact, she bragged what an outstanding engineer Tali was to anyone, even when it embarrassed Tali like hell. And Tali took everything Shepard said to heart, following her every advice and emulated her. Their bond went a lot deeper than just teammates and shipmates."

Miranda had watched countless vids of the Commander during her reconstruction including the vids that Tali was in, but none conveyed this information.

"I'll fix it!" Miranda blurted out suddenly, and her comment startled Dr. Chakwas.

"How?"

"Dr. Chakwas, would you mind if we met regularly so that I can learn more about Commander Shepard's interpersonal relationships with her old crew?"

* * *

In a crowded market street on Omega, Shepard sat on a stool by a food counter and fingered through the menu absent-mindedly. "Omega has huge population. How are we going to find this Dr. Mordin Solus and a guy named Archangel?"

Miranda stood next to Shepard, "I have some contacts on Omega but it'll take some time."

Jacob sat down next to Shepard and took the menu. "We can always ask Aria."

"Aria isn't one to impart information for free." Miranda crossed her arms in front of her.

"Hey, you only have Varren meat?" Jacob asked the guy behind the grill. Shepard gave him a look that said we were here to eat. But Jacob murmured. "I'm hungry, I've been working out on the ship before we came down." Miranda rolled her eyes.

An old woman with sharp eyes and kind face walked over. She looked like one of the many homeless people loitering around the district. The gangs' constant struggle for territories and shipments created a harsh environment for civilians who could only carve out an existence away from the paths of conflict. But some who lived on the streets had eyes and ears to the real heartbeat of the city, and Aria was smart enough to employ some of them to serve her secretly. The old woman had just discovered several gang members had one of Aria's girls and she was about to get in a lot of trouble. The old lady had no time to get the news to Aria and she must act fast if she wanted to save the girl. When she saw Shepard sit down by the grill counter, she knew there was hope.

Shepard looked at the old woman, her belt loose, her robe wrinkly and food pieces on her bosom. Shepard said softly. "Would you like to have something to eat?"

The old lady shook her head. "No, thank you! Are you Commander Shepard? I've seen you on the news many times before. I need your help." She didn't sit down when Shepard offered her a seat, but she pointed upstairs. "An asari is in trouble. A bunch gangs took her upstairs and they didn't look like too pleased with her."

Over the short railing, Shepard could see four guys in full armor surrounding an asari. The batarians hit the girl's face while two turians held her arms. Shepard's hand went to her pistol. Miranda put a hand up, "Do we want to get into the local gang fights right now? We have important missions here."

Shepard pointed her head, and Jacob took out his gun and squatted by the stairs. "I can't watch them beat the girl up. We have to help her." She took out her own gun and directed Miranda to cover the exit, and walked upstairs quietly with Jacob following behind her.

"What's the access code?" The batarian hit the girl's face again.

"Lick my boots!" The asari fell down on her knees, and she spit some blood onto the batarian's legs.

The batarian took the asari's shoulders and kneed her in her side. "If you want to keep your little pretty face pretty, you'd better tell me the code!"

The asari grunted and then she laughed, "Oh, you're so dead!"

Shepard gave Jacob the signal and both jumped up from cover and each knocked a turian on his head from behind. With her arms freed, the asari hit the batarian with her biotics but not before the guy behind the batarian took a shot at her. The bullet ripped through her right shoulder and the asari fell on the floor. Miranda came up from the other side and threw the guy onto the wall with her biotics, knocking him out.

Shepard docked her pistol and got down next to the asari who was fighting to keep herself on her knees. Blood dripped on the floor through the bullet hole, but she was trying to get up. Shepard put a hand on her back and tried to stop her from struggling. "Hey, take it easy. We're going to get you some help. Just stay put." The asari didn't listen, still trying to get on her feet. Her face had a cut and blood was trickling down. Shepard grabbed hold of the asari firmly. "I said stop moving. We'll get you to a doctor."

"Wait…" The asari's eyes never left the batarian's body and with Shepard now support her weight, she moved her legs toward the batarian and dropped on the floor next to him. She unzipped a pocket and took out an OSD, and she stuck it in her own pocket, then she said; "Now I'm done." And she passed out in Shepard's grasp.

"We should take her to Dr. Chakwas."

Jacob picked up the asari easily and walked downstairs. As they passed by the Varren meat counter, the man waved a plate of black meat, "Your grilled meat is ready!" Jacob only grunted but didn't look back. Shepard took the plate and put it in front of the old woman who had a smile on her face.

Dr. Chakwas patched up the bullet wound and the asari spent a quiet night in the Normandy's med bay. But morning brought trouble to the Normandy. Shepard was sleeping in the small storage area under the Engineering deck when Joker called her. "Ah, Commander? We have an army outside of our airlock threatening to storm us."

"Whose army?" Shepard put her uniform on hurriedly.

"Aria's."

"Who's leading it?"

"Aria."

"Shit!" Shepard ran up stairs. "Ask her what she wants."

"I did. She said she wanted the asari in our med bay."

"Joker, stall!"

"How?"

"Charm her, offer her tea, I don't know. Just do it!" Shepard ran into the med bay. Dr. Chakwas was still off duty, and the asari was alone and trying to get out of bed. When Shepard came in, the asari already had her legs dangling off the bed but as she jumped down, her legs couldn't hold her body. "You can't get out of bed yet!" Shepard caught her just in time.

"I heard the commotion outside and I can guess why." The asari grabbed hold of Shepard's shoulders trying to steady herself. "I don't want to get you in trouble with Aria."

"I don't care if it's the Goddess Athame herself at my airlock. Nobody is going to hurt you on my watch." Shepard wrapped her arms around the asari's back and sat her on the bio bed, and then took her legs and moved them back on the bed as well.

The asari sat back on the bio bed that was in half sitting position and she was breathless. "Why are you helping a stranger?"

"Because you need help. What's your name?"

The asari smiled. "Liselle. You can let Aria in, she won't harm me."

"Are you sure about that?"

"I'm quite certain." Something in Liselle's eyes told Shepard that this asari was one of Aria's. "I'll bring her here to see you, but only after I can get a guarantee from her that she won't hurt you and that she let you rest here until Dr. Chakwas says you can leave."

As Shepard made her way to the airlock, she told Joker to open the door. "Ah...are you sure, Commander? She's not going to roll an asteroid in here and flatten us all, is she?"

Shepard chuckled, "Let's hope not."

When she got to the CIC, Aria and her fully armored guards had already spilled into the hallway. Miranda stood at the top of the stairs, Jacob and a few crewmen stood behind Miranda with their rifles aiming at Aria.

Aria looked angry. "Get out my way, you Cerberus whore!"

Miranda answered coolly. "Make me."

Aria's biotics flared, and Miranda matched her move. Aria snorted. "You think your little Sentinel trick can compete with me?"

Miranda had no intention of backing down. "Only one way to find out."

Shepard arrived just in time to stop the two biotics trying to destroy each other and damage the ship in the process. "Stand down! Both of you!"

Miranda took a step back, but Aria's hand still crackled with an energy ball. Shepard stepped in front of Miranda and stared at Aria. "This is my ship. You'll stand down or I'll throw you out."

Aria's surprise was very visible. "Commander Shepard! You're working for Cerberus now?"

Shepard waved her hand for her crew to lower their weapons and then turned to Aria. "I'm sure you've heard about the Collector's attacks, and seeing they're so close to your back door, I'm sure it's a concern for you. My job is to fight them. I'm only using Cerberus resources. You of all people should understand the need for temporary alliances."

Aria's hand stopped crackling and she nodded to her men. "Wait outside." She turned to Shepard, "I want to know everything about the Collectors."

"But first, I have to get your word that you won't harm Liselle."

"She told you I'd harm her?"

"No, just the opposite. But I'm not as trusting. Either I get your word or I invite you to leave."

Aria couldn't hide a smirk on her face. How quaint, the famous Commander had no idea who Liselle was to her. "I give you my word that I won't hurt the girl. But I'm going to take her with me when I leave."

"No, she isn't well enough to do that yet. Our doctor will take care of her, maybe in a couple of days you can send your own medical staff to collect her." Shepard didn't give Aria room to wiggle.

"Do you always get what you want?"

"Never."

That brought an expected smile from Aria. "Well, there's always the first. You win. I agree to your conditions and I give you my fucking word, Shepard."

Shepard took Aria to Liselle in the med bay and left them alone. Aria waited for Shepard to walk back into the mess hall, then she turned to face the young asari. "What were you doing there all by yourself? I taught you better than this!" Aria scolded.

The young asari sat up straighter but she held her wounded arm gingerly. "I was a little drunk last night and went into the wrong bathroom. I overheard two batarians talking about a scheme to team up with other gangs to kill you and take Omega for themselves. I heard their meeting time and place, so I went to check it out. But they discovered me."

"Why didn't you tell me? Or take people with you?" Aria moved closer.

"I don't know who I can trust. Your own people sold you out, Aria."

"You should have told me." Anger left her voice. She moved to stand next to the bed and she tilted Liselle face slightly to check out the cut and the bruise.

"And you'd do what? Kill a bunch people blindly? I was going to find out who was behind it first." She took out an OSD under her pillow and handed it to Aria. Aria flipped through the pages and her face twisted in anger. She closed her eyes to calm herself down and she put the OSD in her pocket.

"You did good, Liselle. But you have to remember to use the skills I taught you. Haven't I trained you enough for you to know how to take care of yourself? You have to be smarter than this. How are you going to inherit this rock one day if you do stupid things like getting yourself killed?" Aria opened Liselle's medical gown to check her wound.

"I don't want to inherit this rock. It's your dream, not mine." Liselle covered her shoulder and Aria stepped back.

"What would you rather do instead?" Here was their on-going argument. The mother wanted to groom an heir, the daughter wanted to rebel.

"Travel. Explore uncharted territories." Liselle had never shared this with her mother. She knew Aria hated it when her ideas were challenged.

Aria put her face close to Liselle and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Liselle, I didn't bring you up to be a survey monkey!"

"No, you didn't. You'd prefer I turn into your drug mule." More rebellion from the young asari.

"Watch yourself!"

Liselle lowered her head. "I lived all my life on this rock. I know you want me here but this is your rock, Aria. Not mine. I want to explore the galaxy."

"Then get a map."

"A map might tell you where a star lives or how a comet travels, but no map can reveal the wonders they've seen or the beautiful and brute forces of space that they've created. A map can't tell you the lives lived on the planets or the cargo that's passed through the relays, maps have very limited view of the galaxy. I have a thousand years to live, I want them filled with wonders of the worlds and of people."

Aria stared at Liselle in a way she'd never looked at her daughter before. Was she in awe of a mind with such a passion for life and imagination? Or did she think this was a silly idea dreamed up by an inexperienced young maiden? Aethyta's words echoed in her mind, "You need to get her off Omega." Did Aethyta see something Aria had missed? Was she that afraid of losing her daughter? Not just her presence, which was the only comfort and warmth Aria could feel and would allow herself to feel, or was she afraid Liselle would alter her loyalty when the galaxy changed the way she looked at the world, altering the lens of her view? Would a pirate queen's daughter be always loyal to her pirate queen mother?

"Then why haven't you run away?"

"Who'd watch your back?"

Aria stopped talking and turned her back. "I have people who do that for me." She said weakly.

"And how many of them wouldn't sell you if given enough credits?"

"So you gave up your dreams to protect me?" Goddess, I don't know my own daughter!

Aria waited until the young asari fell back to sleep and she came out to meet with Shepard outside the med bay.

"Shepard, I'm leaving Liselle in your charge. If your Cerberus whore put a finger on her, I'll have her head and yours." Aria's voice was meant for Miranda to hear as well.

"I'll not let anyone hurt Liselle nor call my crew names. She has a name, and it's Miranda. You'll address her as Miranda from here on out." Shepard ignored Aria's sneer. "And I'm looking for a salarian named Mordin Solus and a guy named Archangel, and I need your help to find them."

Aria gave Miranda another dirty look and turned to Shepard. "Fine. I'll help you."

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: Doubts


	14. Chapter 14 Doubts

**Second Life**

**Chapter Fourteen - Doubts**

_Nyxeris walked in a quiet garden in the mid-day sun. The air was filled with the smell of small pink blossoms on the trees around her. Her steps were light and her feet were naked. She touched the soft petals of fallen flowers. "They're beautiful!" She breathed out. _

In a small apartment on the edge of Nos Astra, Nightshade had strapped Nyxeris in a chair and attached a small disk on Nyxeris' forehead. She had injected the Shadow Broker's agent with a dose of potent hallucinogens and she was getting ready to guide the hallucinations Nyxeris was experiencing to reveal the information they needed.

Liara watched the assassin methodically going about her business and she was thankful that Nightshade knew what to do. Liara would have been lost if this task was left to her. Liara stared at Nyxeris in the chair, mumbling yet not completely conscious, she commented to Nightshade. "At least you aren't beating her." Now that her anger wasn't raging through her mind, Liara hoped they'd find the location of the real Shadow Broker's base and take out the one who was truly wielding all the power.

Nightshade smirked. "Beating is for amateurs. Real interrogation is about understanding the psyche of the subject and using it against them." She took out a datapad and tapped on it. The small disc on Nyxeris' head lit up and Nyxeris' body responded with tension.

"_Liara!" Nyxeris saw her boss standing on a flagstone in the garden, waving at her. Nyxeris walked over and accepted a datapad from Liara. "You want me to see if there is any useful information here?" She asked for orders. Liara only smiled and nodded. Nyxeris' eyes were attracted to a small yellow animal standing next to Liara. It was licking its paw and it didn't pay any attention to the Observer._

Nightshade tapped on her datapad again and explained what she was doing to Liara. "I never understood those who beat asari to make them talk. Our most sensitive part is our mind. You can cause the most pain through our mind, not the body. Through the disc control on her head, the hallucinations will alternate between serene and terrifying. During the course of the interrogation, the subject will respond to both, and gravitate naturally toward the feeling of calm and peaceful. That's when we get the truth."

Liara walked closer to the chair and she saw a faint smile on Nyxeris' face. "She's in the serene state now?" Nightshade nodded. Looking at the smile on the Shadow Broker's agent's face, Liara's anger returned. Was this the true face of the hunters who haunted her in her sleep and left her breathless from fear when she woke up? Was this the one who hired the assassin that punched a hole in Fin 2's body? She knew for certain this was the face that stuck a knife in the Matriarch's leg and left her still ailing in the sick bay on the Blue Sabre. Liara turned around and closed her eyes. "Make her suffer." She didn't bother to hide the anger in her voice. Nightshade tapped on the datapad once more.

_Nyxeris' feet suddenly couldn't move anymore. A sense of dread fell upon her as she looked up at the sky when a group of clouds blocked the sun. All joy was transient, she thought as the loss of her lover pulsed in her mind. When she looked down again in the garden, Liara was gone, only the animal stayed. It stared at Nyxeris with its mouth open slightly and it had grown in size. In a flash, the animal was upon her, and its mouth had grown into an immense black hole threatening to swallow her into its void. Nyxeris leaned back. She wanted to turn around and run, but she couldn't move her feet. "Help!" She yelled. _

Nightshade connected both the disc on Nyxeris' head and the datapad in her own hand to a small terminal on a table next to the chair. She looked up at Liara, "She'll be ready soon. I'm feeding her relevant information we've gathered about the Shadow Broker's location and his affiliates. Hopefully she'll make the connection for us." As Nightshade tapped on the datapad, Nyxeris' body alternated between relaxing and rigid.

_After a long and difficult struggle, Nyxeris finally climbed out of the dark cave that the animal's mouth had turned into, and she saw Liara standing in a beautiful garden once again. "Liara, we have to get out of here!" Nyxeris ran toward her boss. Liara handed her a datapad, Nyxeris understood. "You don't know where to go?" Liara nodded. Nyxeris quickly flipped through the data, all the while looking over her shoulders and checking to see if anything threatening appeared. _

Nightshade monitored the terminal and she looked up again at Liara. "We've got the location. It looks like a ship hidden in the atmosphere of a planet." She transmitted the information to Liara's omni-tool. "I can bring her out of the hallucination now. I want her to see her own death with a clear conscience."

Both the garden and the cave had disappeared suddenly, and Nyxeris opened her eyes to a spartan apartment.

Nyxeris knew she had given away the true location of her master, therefor forfeiting her life, but she would not let the pureblooded bitch outface her now that she saw her own end. She had nothing to lose but she'd take whatever she could from Liara to her grave. "You're still the biggest fool in the galaxy!"

These were her parting words? Liara shook her head. "Do you have only one song to sing?"

"Oh, I have plenty. Have you thought about what your dead woman would do when she comes back and learns you were the one who handed her to her enemy?"

"Yes, I have. That's a risk worth taking." Liara saw the menace in Nyxeris' eyes, and she would not let her win at whatever evil game the Shadow Broker's agent was playing.

"And have you thought about why she chose death? If you were that important to her, why wouldn't she stay with you instead of trying to save someone else or her ship? Are you sure about the woman who you claim loved you?"

Liara opened her mouth, but she didn't have an answer to offer. It was only a split second when the Normandy was burning and Shepard ordered her to get in an escape pod, a split second Shepard looked back at her, a split second Liara pleaded silently for Shepard to come with her and escape the disaster together. That split second made all the difference to Liara, that was the second that she should have wrapped Shepard with her biotics and drag her to safety, and that was the second Liara failed and faltered. How could such a fleeting moment change one's life so much?

Nyxeris felt satisfaction when Liara didn't offer an answer. Perhaps she'd get her revenge after all. "And you have turned into a cold blooded killer. Only the wicked attracts the wicked, Liara. You're surrounded by an assassin and a Shadow Broker's agent, are you sure you're still the same person as you used to be?"

Liara stood only a couple of paces away from the Observer, but her mind returned to the moment after Shepard gave the presentation of the Battle Above Noveria to the Council. Shepard told Liara someone was trying to assassinate her and she used her own body to block the shot. Liara asked why would anyone do so much for her. Shepard answered, "Some people you meet in life will strike you at your core. We often forget the strengths and qualities we developed in more innocent times. I've seen so many ugly things and suffering that I sometimes forget who I really want to be. Talking to you or just being with you brings that part of me out. You're the only person I've ever met that has touched me that deeply. How can I ever let anything bad happen to you if I can help it?"

Liara's tears came like a sudden storm. Nyxeris' words didn't just bring disquiet to her fortified self, they brought all the doubts and fear she had been suppressing for the past two years, the fear that she might finally lose the woman she had tried so hard to bring back.

"Are you sure this was all worth it?" Nyxeris saw clearly what went through Liara's mind and she thinned her eyes. "Liara? I win!"

Liara ran out of the room like she was escaping a plague and she sat on the stairs in the hallway and buried her face in her arms and started sobbing. Nightshade tapped on her datapad again, and Nyxeris' body stiffened and she threw her head back with her eyes popping, screaming from pain. "That's for what you did to my friend!" The assassin took out a needle and jabbed it into Nyxeris' neck.

A scream came through the door, high pitched, thin and reedy. Nightshade must have done it. Liara felt no consolation knowing that Nyxeris was dead, only more doubts.

Nightshade came out and sat next to Liara. "It's done. We have the location and the Observer is dead." Looking at Liara's face still painted with tears, Nightshade's voice turned cold. "A quick death was too good for that wench." She handed Liara the small disc that she used on Nyxeris' head.

"What am I going to do with this?" Liara stared at the disc in Nightshade's palm, almost afraid to touch it.

"We assassins often have to take a piece of evidence to show we've fulfilled a contract. This is for you. Frame it and display it on your desk so that you can see it everyday. Let it serve as a reminder that your enemy would not show mercy to you even as she took her last breaths, and you should show no mercy to your enemies as you strike them down." Nightshade put a hand on Liara's shoulder. "Don't let her win, Liara."

Liara picked up the disc. "But she was right. I may have lost the only person whom I had given myself to completely, my body and my soul. Now, I am not sure if she would accept me again. I have the same body but no longer the same soul."

Nightshade couldn't help but feel for the young maiden. No glittering words or age-old wisdom could ever change reality. The only way to get pass it was to accept it. "There's no falling from grace for those who've suffered loss, only survival. You quickly find out what you would or would not do and how far you would go for the one you love."

"Question is, can I find my way back." Liara sounded lost.

"You book-types. Can't worry about that right now, you'll just have to find a way to live with what you've done. You can't find your way back. You have to move forward." Nightshade stood up with a hand on her hip, facing Liara. "In all likelihood, Nyxeris wasn't the only person on your tail. The Shadow Broker has an army and commands many more."

Liara closed her hand around the disc. "And when they come, I will be ready! There will be time for penance. But now we get the bastard and get Feron back!" _And hopefully she will not turn me away because of who I have become._

Nightshade wrapped her hands around Liara's. "We'll do it together!"

* * *

Shepard was on the Citadel, shopping. Being in the military since very young, she had no idea how to shop for clothes. The Alliance provided her with everything she needed while on duty and her mother, Hannah, bought all her civvy clothes. She came to the Citadel to see David Anderson and the Council. She'd be damned if she had to wear a Cerberus uniform. She did see a clothing store on Omega, but it offered outfits that were more suited the dancers in Afterlife than a Marine, or a former Marine. She'd ask Garrus, but her old friend was still lying in the sick bay under sedation after his face surgery. It felt good to have Garrus back. So far Shepard had one strike and one hit, batting 500, that wasn't so bad. While Garrus was quietly recovering in the med bay, her new team member Mordin Solus had brought life to the research lab. His high-pitched nasal voice often carried tunes through the thick bulkhead and stopped crew who'd pass by and wondered if Shepard had picked up a salarian opera singer.

In a clothing store that wasn't specifically catering to strippers, Shepard stood in front of a sea of tables with pants stacked high and organized by style and color. She walked through the aisles back and forward, trying to find the answer her wanderings would not give her. _How the hell did my mother do this and actually enjoyed it?_

Passing by the same tables for the fourth time, Shepard got impatient. She stopped at a table and stared at a stack of maroon colored pants. In the corner of her eye, she saw the sales clerk meandering her way over. Shepard picked up three pairs of maroon colored pants and moved to another area to buy some shirts.

EDI's voice came on Shepard's comm. "Commander Shepard, may I be of any assistance?"

"What?" EDI startled Shepard. She had told her crew that she needed to go see the Councilors alone. Having Cerberus personnel would not help her cause.

EDI continued. "Dr. Chakwas suggested that I lend you a hand at shopping as she indicated that you had never done it before."

"Thank you, EDI. But I don't need any help." Shepard cursed Dr. Chakwas's big mouth silently.

EDI didn't give up easily. "Shepard, may I suggest that maroon doesn't go very well with lime green?"

Shepard stared down at her hand that was holding a large green shirt. "Wait, how do you know…"

"I hacked into the surveillance camera feed in the clothing store." EDI said matter-of-factly.

Shepard put down the lime green shirt and moved on to the next aisle, and held up a zingy yellow shirt to the camera. EDI responded, "Not that one either." Watching Shepard slam the shirt back down onto the tables in frustration, EDI tried again. "Perhaps you could pick more neutral colored pants, like a beige or blue, they might provide better options for shirt colors."

"Oh, no! I'm not going back there. That sales clerk must think I'm a creep or something for staring at the pants for that long. No, maroon will be my favorite color. So let's find something that goes with maroon."

EDI remained quiet, waiting for Shepard to make her next selection. Shepard looked at a long aisle of the same style shirts in an indescribable number of colors and she could feel tears forming. She missed her mother. "Mom, how the hell did you do it? Always finding the right ones?" Shepard shut her eyes, trying to suppress the tears. She walked toward the cashier's counter and randomly picked a few shirts as she passed by the tables.

EDI's voice came back. "Shepard, I don't believe that was the method in which your mother shopped for your attire."

Before EDI could suggest that Shepard should try the clothes on and see if they fit, Shepard had reached the cashier.

"Shepard…"

Shepard looked down at the shirts she had picked up that included bright orange, lipstick pink and colors she couldn't name. "EDI, shut up! I'm buying these clothes whether you like them or not!"

It was still early to meet with Anderson, Shepard wandered into the Wards near Flux, and walked into the roller-staking arena below the bar. There was a tournament going on and the sound in the arena was thunderous. Shepard smiled at the memory of her last time here and felt displaced at the same time.

Shepard hadn't let herself wonder what Liara might be doing. No one had had heard from her, not Garrus, not Tali, not Chakwas and certainly not Joker. Tali mentioned that Liara had come and visited her once but they lost touch after that. She knew that Liara would be shocked to see her alive and perhaps even disturbed that she was now working with Cerberus, but she also knew that Liara would support her decision to help those who were in need. Now it was just matter of finding her location. She'd ask Anderson, maybe Tevos knew or even Emily Wong.

Shepard had a faint smile on her face when she saw the clerk at the rollerblade shop, "Still working here, huh?" The clerk recognized her. Shepard shook his hands, "Do you remember those rollerblades I bought from you two years ago? Can I order two more pairs?"

* * *

Ashley Williams hadn't slept in two days. After her trip to the Citadel, Admiral Hackett asked her to check out a human colony on Horizon that had over half of a million colonists and help them with their defense turrets. Since the trip would only require her to calibrate the Gardian laser turrets, she didn't request any backup from the Orizaba. Ashley was still waiting to hear from Shiala about the whereabouts of Liara. She wasn't going to go back to Hannah without that information. Ashley got a sense that Shiala knew where Liara was but she wanted to get Liara's permission before sharing that information. And that was fine with Ashley, what kept her up at night wasn't the secrecy of one asari but the openness of another.

The night Ashley spent on Shiala's shuttle was a blur, she didn't remember much but what Shiala shared with her stuck in her mind. She couldn't help but think what if Shiala had killed Saren, would the galaxy be a different place today? Another thing brought doubts to her mind. Why did she kiss Shiala? Did she ever wonder what Shepard felt when she kissed Liara subconsciously? Or was it because of the way Shiala cared for her that touched her? Ashley wasn't going to think too much on it, she only needed some action to take her mind off these doubts.

"Give me some bad guys to punch and shoot at." She said to Admiral Hackett. "I'm tired of always being a step behind these creeps, sir! I want to fight!"

Ashley didn't get her fight, but she did see the Collectors' ship leaving. As she searched for survivors, she witnessed the biggest shock of her life. Shepard was standing right in front her, with Cerberus crew, fighting under a Cerberus banner and in Cerberus uniform. Ashley couldn't breath and her guns suddenly felt heavy on her back.

Shepard was telling her about the Collectors who attacked the colony and took the people with them on their cruiser after the swarm seekers immobilized everyone. And it was quite possible that the Collectors also attacked the Normandy, the real Normandy, not the Cerberus Normandy.

Ashley didn't hear what Shepard was saying because she couldn't move her eyes from the Cerberus insignia on Shepard's armor. The red glowing scars on Shepard's face creeped Ashley out a little, but the Cerberus logo brought a burning sensation to her stomach.

"Have you been hiding this whole time with Cerberus?" Ashley cut off whatever Shepard was saying. _Do you have any idea what you put your mother through? What you put me through?_

"No, I was dead the whole time. Cerberus brought me back." Shepard could almost hear Ashley's thoughts.

Ashley still wasn't listening. "How could you do this, Shepard? I worshiped you! You crawled in bed with the enemy? I don't care if they brought you back from death! You just don't turn your back on your fucking family!"

It seemed like it was just yesterday when Ashley kicked her butt in card games and installed her favorite mods on Shepard's rifle. Time had played a cruel and unfair joke. "I didn't have a choice, Ash!" Shepard tried to reason.

Still not listening. Ashley's heart was pounding and her eyes were burning. She had gone through hell for the last two years, and for what? The person who was standing here and grinning at her as if nothing happened? Ashley took large steps towards Shepard and with that momentum, she swung at Shepard's grinning face.

Shepard was telling Ashley, "Can you believe who is flying the SR-2? You would never guess!" But before she could say Joker's name, her face landed on the cold stone. Ashley had decked her and Shepard didn't even see it coming. Seeing Ashley was like coming home, the familiar uniform and the Marine's familiar swagger when she walked toward her. She couldn't help but smile, this was her old life she adored: seeing old friends. But the punch Ashley dished out told her this was anything but a reunion of old friends. The world had changed while she was sleeping.

Shepard's ear was ringing. She could feel the skin on her scars stretched by the punch, and the stone felt hard and cold under her skin. It reminded her of the same feeling she had on Virmire, when Saren hit her on the face and she fell on the stone steps. It was cold and hard, and her ear rang then too. She remembered what she was doing with her face next to the stone on Virmire, she was shouting. "Kaidan, come in! Kaidan!"

_Theirs not to make reply _

Shepard grunted loudly and jumped up. Without a word, she launched her strike. Ashley's face looked like pizza dough being punched in slow motion as Shepard's fist moved with lightning speed. Cerberus implants were impeccable. Ashley tumbled backwards a few steps and couldn't find her balance. She dropped on the ground. Shepard was on her in an instant and hit her face again and again. Ashley didn't fight back for the first few hits.

_Theirs not to reason why_

"Come on! Fight me! If you think I'm your enemy, then hit me! Have you forgotten your duty, Marine?" Shepard grabbed Ashley's uniform collar and shook her. Ashley sucked in a full breath of air and she hit Shepard in her ribs, and Shepard fell sideways off Ashley. It was Ashley's turn. She straddled Shepard's hips with her powerful legs and pushed Shepard down on the ground and rained down the blows.

"You were a fucking idiot!" Ashley planted a punch on Shepard's left cheek. "Why didn't you fucking evacuate?" Another blow. "Joker told me you could have made it, why did you look back?" Another blow went through Shepard's defensive arms. "Why the hell did you have to die?" Ashley pinned both Shepard's wrists with an arm and she had a clear shot of Shepard's face. The strong Marine clenched her fist tightly and swung it toward the already bloodied face.

"I didn't have a choice!" Shepard shouted through her bloodied mouth. "Just like Kaidan didn't have a choice, I didn't have a choice." Ashley's hand stuck in mid-air.

_Theirs but to do and die_

Ashley lost her strength. She fell off Shepard's body and lay on the ground next to her old Commander, panting desperately. When she stopped panting, she sat up and stared at Shepard's mangled face. "You were not the idiot, Shepard. I was. I thought of you as my hero while I should have known that no one is infallible."

Shepard sat up too. "Ash, people out here need my help. I can't just leave them to their doomed fate. If the Alliance cruisers were here right now, I'd be the first one to jump on it, but they're not. I know you understand this because I can see that you're frustrated too, but I hope that one day you can accept what I'm doing." She paused for a moment, "Ashley, you'll always be my family even when you're mad at me."

Blood dripped from Shepard's nose and face onto her Cerberus armor, Ashley saw the familiar determination in Shepard's eye. She stood up and pulled Shepard to her feet. "You take care of yourself out there." Shepard understood that was Ashley's way of telling her "I won't watch your back this time around". The soldiers' bond forged in battle and blood could no longer bind them together. The person who had sworn to protect her back would no long stand behind her. In her second life, Shepard lived in a whole different world.

Shepard heard Miranda's footsteps moving closer, no doubt the creator wanted to check on her proud creation. Shepard turned and gave Miranda such a resentful look that it stopped Miranda in her tracks. Shepard had an intense awareness of her own heartbeat as she looked up at the sky.

_Boldly they rode and well, _

_Into the jaws of Death,_

_Into the mouth of Hell_

No more the sound of beating drums and no more galloping horses pounding their feet on the ground. Shepard's body fell backwards while she made her last whisper, "Honor the charge they made!" The sky had turned into darkness.

* * *

"Miranda, what the bloody hell is going on?" Dr. Chakwas helped Miranda and Jacob put Shepard on a bio bed. "I thought you said she was fit for combat. What happened to her face?"

Miranda ran to the back of the med bay to get the medical scanner. Jacob offered, "That wasn't from the fight with the Collectors. We took care of the Collectors without any major injuries thanks to Shepard's leadership and combat abilities." He pointed at Shepard's bloodied and bruised face. "This, her old teammate Ashley Williams did this. She was a strong one, that Ashley. But Shepard got in a few punches on her too." Jacob had a smile on his face.

Dr. Chakwas was shocked. "You ran into Ashley? And she did this to Shepard? That's madness!"

Jacob chuckled. "That's Marines for you. When they can't talk it out, they duke it out. I think they had understanding of each other after the fight though."

Miranda rolled the heavy equipment to the bio bed, "Ashley took a few swings but she didn't make Shepard pass out. This is something else. Jacob, get me the analysis tools from my quarters. I need to figure out what the Bekke chip sees."

"You suspect this is psychological again?" Dr. Chakwas checked Shepard's eyes.

"Yes," Miranda was irritated by Shepard's continued response to emotional distress. "I gave her a quick scan on the shuttle ride. Her vitals aren't bad, only an accelerated heart rate. But the Bekke chip has been going wild, signals are jumping all over the place. I don't understand why the recording chip would interfere with her brain functions. Her nerve system isn't responding normally either."

Jacob came back with a neural analyzer and Miranda quickly fed the reading of Bekke chip into it. "I don't understand! Why would the Bekke chip react to Shepard's psyche? It should function as an observation post."

Rebuilding Shepard was a journey at first, when the subject was lying on a table to be prodded and tested. Now that Shepard was walking and breathing, Miranda sensed that her journey had gone where she didn't plan on it going before.

"I feel I'm losing control of her." Miranda muttered to herself. "Control!" Miranda suddenly froze. "Oh my god. It's the Bekke chip. The neural scans, I know why she had headaches and why her brain fights her body." Miranda ran the large scanner again. "Her emotional distress generated abnormal electromagnetic waves that make the chip go haywire while it tried to control her emotions." She ran the scan results through the analyzer again, and her suspicion was confirmed.

"God! I did this to her!" Miranda fell into the chair behind her.

Dr. Chakwas looked over the scans and she offered. "With such a complex procedure, it's inevitable you make one mistake. Let's concentrate on how to fix it."

"The only way to fix it would be taking it out, but it involves complications. I had originally planned to take it out before activating the subje…Shepard, before her brain functions could interact with the chip actively, but Wilson's treason ruined that plan. I've left most of the secondary implants intact because they seem to provide good backup for her essential implants, and her body is accepting them to my surprise."

"What's the prognosis if you didn't take it out?" The physician's mind was always on the safety of the patient.

"I don't know. Each time this happened, Shepard got worse physically. This time it shut down most of her body functions. If she didn't have the fight with Ashley that exhausted her, she might have fought with the chip even more and god knows what it might have done to her."

"So it's dangerous either way. Do you think we can safely take it out?"

Miranda still sat in the chair. It was not everyday she made a mistake of this magnitude, and it shocked her. "I have my doubts. I have to run simulations to see what effects it'll have on Shepard's neural system if we take out the Bekke chip. Damn it!" Miranda cursed herself again.

Doubts, Miranda couldn't afford to have those when it came to dealing with Shepard. She had to be absolutely certain. Damn that Wilson! Miranda stood up and moved closer to the bed. She put her hand on Shepard's unconscious form, "I'll fix this, I promise."

* * *

Fin 2 and her friends sat in the firing range on the Blue Sabre, playing a drinking game. The Blue Sabre had been docked for a few days on Illium and it didn't look like it'd go anywhere soon. The Matriarch suffered some bone damage to her leg and she was still laid up in the sick bay recuperating. Fern Gnor had been coming every day and bringing the best soup made by his favorite chef to the Matriarch. With no mission to prepare, the Fins took to the firing range to practice both shooting and drinking. A long necked bottle stood in the middle of the tablet with four shot glasses surrounding it. Fin 2 smiled at her latest target that showed a perfect score, Fin 4 rolled her eyes and downed a shot of liquor. "My turn!" Fin 4 set down the glass loudly and went into the firing stall.

The firing range door swooshed opened. G.G. stuck her head in and searched for Fin 2. She entered the room and stayed by the door, a sound proof glass separated her and the Fins. The young asari sat in one of the chairs in the waiting area. G.G. had been struggling with how she'd say goodbye to Fin 2. She had told the salarian that she'd help him with his research on the implant for the Ardat-Yakshi but she'd need more time to prepare. A commando in an elite squad couldn't just disappear, she persuaded the salarian. It'd raise suspicion and the salarian wouldn't want the asari military on his tail searching for their former member. G.G. would need an excuse to leave and tie up loose ends before she left. The salarian had given her two weeks to put things in order.

Now it came to the hard part: how could she say goodbye to Fin 2? She sure didn't want to leave this life and the thought of not seeing Fin 2 again was almost unbearable. But what choices did she have? At least this way, she'd have hope that one day she could return to a normal life once again.

Watching the Fins slapping high fives with each other and one of them taking a shot of blue colored liquor, G.G. couldn't help but smile. She loved watching the Fins, not only because in combat, the Fins were her responsibility to keep safe and give her readings to, but off battlefield, she had grown to care for them. G.G. made certain that she installed the best upgrades to their sniper rifles as soon as she'd built them and loved watching the four best friends bantering with each other. The Fins had also become fond of G.G. They always offered to help her carry gearboxes in the field and they gave Fin 2 and G.G. privacy anytime they wished to be alone.

When the Fins finally finished their shooting and drinking game, Fin 2 saw the young commando in the waiting area and beckoned her to come in. "Why didn't you come in and drink with us?"

The other Fins packed up their sniper rifles and patted G.G. on the shoulder and said goodbye, Fin 1 gave Fin 2 a wink that didn't escape G.G.'s notice. Fin 2 still sat in a chair and motioned for G.G. to sit next to her. She poured two drinks and handed one to G.G. "I was just about to come and find you after our practice." They both took their drinks and Fin 2 poured another round. "My mother is going to have a birthday get-together and I think I'm going to accept her invitation this time. And since you were the one that dragged my ass to talk to her again, I thought I could bring you as my date. She heard about you and she wanted to meet you as well."

G.G.'s face fell. "When?"

Fin 2 was too busy drinking to notice G.G.'s mood. "In a couple of weeks. We have plenty of time to prepare." She poured more drinks. "We can make another trip to the Citadel and go shopping. You can pick out any outfit you like for the party, I'm buying." She smiled brightly. When Fin 2 looked up, she saw the young commando wasn't smiling. "What's wrong?"

G.G. looked up from the shot glass. "Oh, nothing!" And she forced a smile.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to. But I would love to have you with me." Fin 2 examined her friend. Something was bothering the young commando. She saw G.G.'s hand playing with something in her pocket and she asked playfully. "What you got in there?"

G.G. took out a short scope from her pocket. This was the parting gift she had spent the last two sleepless nights building for Fin 2. Staring at the scope, G.G. couldn't make herself move. If she gave this to Fin 2, she'd have said her goodbye.

Fin 2 saw the scope in G.G.'s hand, "Hey, have you built a new scope for us? Are you using me as your test subject again?" She sounded excited.

G.G. shook her head and her voice was almost a whisper. "No, this one is for you only."

Fin 2 stood up, "Oh, Fin 1 will be so jealous! You're too good to me" She dragged G.G. with her and went to the firing stall where her sniper rifle was set up. "Put it on and tell me what it does!"

G.G. took out a screwdriver from the side pocket on her sleeve and started unscrewing the old scope on the sniper rifle. Fin 2 bent down and put an elbow on the platform that held the rifle. She looked up at her young friend's face, "You know that I think you're hot when you bring out your tools."

G.G.'s face turned a deeper color. "Really? I haven't noticed." She flared a glance at the sniper and went back to her work.

"You're not a very good liar." Fin 2 laughed. G.G. couldn't help but smile. Fin 2 suddenly pushed G.G. against the divider wall between the firing stalls and kissed her full lips. G.G. was caught by surprise and dropped her tool. Fin 2 didn't stop. She held G.G.'s shoulders against the divider when the young commando looked down at her screwdriver on the floor. "Leave it." Fin 2 moved her lips to G.G.'s long neck, starting with just above her neckline and worked her way back. G.G. moaned, and it only served as encouragement.

"Wait…" G.G. was a little breathless. "Alia, wait."

Fin 2 didn't wait. She only retreated back from one side of G.G.'s neck so that she could taste the other side. The cool and smooth skin felt and tasted like her favorite candy. "You taste delicious." G.G.'s body shuddered a little and she threw her head back and bit her lip. The pulsing behind her neck had long past burning and she felt like her heart was jumping out of her chest. G.G. grabbed Fin 2's shoulders and pushed her away from her neck. Fin 2's eyes were a little unfocused, and G.G. couldn't tell if they were drunk from the liquor or something else. But one thing was clear: Fin 2's eyes had fire and it burned her cheeks and her breath. The heat transferred to G.G. when Fin 2 was sucking on her neck, and it ignited something in G.G. Looking at Fin 2's scorching eyes and parted lips, G.G. pulled the sniper's shoulders in and covered her cool lips on Fin 2's burning ones. It made both of their bodies shudder.

Fin 2's legs were the first to go, and G.G. turned her around and pushed her against the wall and holding her up with her own body. As the kiss deepened into the neck, Fin 2 started to unzip G.G.'s jumpsuite and moved her tongue lower as she exposed more of the young commando's skin. G.G. held Fin 2's head with both hands and couldn't help but let out more moans. She had completely forgotten why she came in here. "You have the powerful body of a goddess." G.G. whispered as she peeled the underarmor off Fin 2's shoulders and she cupped her hands on the exposed breasts.

Fin 2 responded in her own voice of pleasure as she dipped her head and buried her face in the deep of G.G.'s neck. She felt the strong pulsing behind the young commando's neck, Fin 2 almost lost her control. "I love your lips, I love your neck, and I love everything I've seen on your body. I love you, G.G." With each word she touched G.G.'s body with her lips.

"I love you too, Alia." G.G. held onto the back of Fin 2's neck as Fin 2's tongue played with her breasts.

G.G.'s touch on the sensitive spot behind her neck was all she needed, and Fin 2 started to initiate a meld. "I want you!"

"I want you, too." G.G. turned her eyes black. Fin 2 let out a satisfying cry and turned her own eyes black.

G.G.'s mind was wondrous and inviting. Fin 2 opened her own mind to match G.G.'s openness. Fin 2 could feel how G.G. was reacting to her touch and how much more she wanted. The first touches were light, like a cool breeze brushing against skin, then the penetrating heat followed, taking Fin 2's breath away. "Your mind is beautiful." Fin 2 could feel her own mind heating up, responding to G.G.'s desires.

As the meld deepened, a tiny voice sounded in G.G.'s mind. "Stop the melding." But the voice was so faint that G.G. didn't hear it at first. Then the voice got louder, she suddenly realized what she had done. "I have to stop this!" She shut her eyes tightly, trying hard to sever the link between her mind and Fin 2's. But Fin 2's mind was inviting her in, and G.G. couldn't focus. "I must stop this." G.G. repeated it again, and this time Fin 2 heard it too.

"Why? Why do you have to stop it? Just relax and enjoy it." Fin 2 tried to keep her in the meld.

"No!" Years of training and meditation created mental queues in G.G.'s mind. She learned to sound the alarm when her meld reached a certain milestone and to stop the meld before it reached dangerous territory. "Stop!" Another mental queue helped her pull back.

With an abruptness that stopped her heart and chilled the fire in her body, G.G. blinked her eyes into blue. She tore herself away from Fin 2's arms, as she ran through the door, she zipped up her jumpsuit. Fin 2 fell and sat on the floor, and screamed in frustration. Something was poking her butt; she pulled it out and saw it was G.G.'s screwdriver. She threw it across the room and screamed again.

* * *

**A/N:** The Horizon part had reference to and quotes from The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson. Next up: Shepard goes to Illium in "Why Love What You Will Lose?"


	15. Chapter 15 Why Love What You Will Lose?

_**A/N: **__Warning: In the very beginning, there's a scene where varren eat a human alive._

**Second Life**

**Chapter Fifteen – Why Love What You Will Lose?**

In the bowels of the Big Whale, the yahg ordered his people to open the storm shutters. The artificial lights in the giant cargo hold dimmed automatically when the shutters opened, revealing the violent storms surrounding the ship. Below the catwalk, a den of massive sized varren barked at a bloodied platform that usually carried their meals when the Shadow Broker decided to execute someone. High resolution cameras watched the entire arena and when there was a slaughter, the cameras made recordings that the Shadow Broker handed out to his agents like cheap candies on Halloween.

Two guys in full armor dragged a bloodied and broken form onto the platform, the yahg nodded at the cameras. A salarian behind him tapped on his omni-tool and turned on the recording. The door on the other side of the room opened, two Shadow Broker's agents escorted an asari into the den. The interminable walk along the railing gave a clear view of the wild animals, the air was thick with their offensive odor and the sound of their desperate cries for food chilled everyone's bones in the room. They all knew the varren had been starved enough that as soon as their meal arrived they'd tear their teeth into the unfortunate person who most likely would still be alive while being eaten.

As the asari walked along the gallery, the yahg gave the order to lower the platform. A human who had been beaten and then placed on the platform started shaking. He knew exactly what was going to happen to him. He'd seen it in the vids many times. "No!" He pleaded. "Please just shoot me. Someone, please shoot me!"

Nobody made a move, and in a flash, the hungry varren were on top of him. His throat splitting screams accompanied by the crunching sound of bone sundering made the asari stop. But the Shadow Broker's guards behind her nudged her to resume the terrifying walk. "Don't want to keep the boss waiting!"

The yahg saw his visitor but he didn't turn his attention away from the varren who were smacking their mouths while chewing the flesh and bones altogether.

"You don't like to think of the barbarians in your ancestry but they're there." The yahg was still watching the feeding frenzy but he knew that the asari could hear the meaning in his words. "The same instincts were passed down through the genetic code in our DNA, there's no denying it, only accepting it and embracing it. Fear drives us as much as greed, but survival is the ultimate goal and the best reward. Don't you agree, Spectre Vasir?" He finally turned his attention to the asari who stood a few paces away, visibly shaken by the scene in the den but was trying to hide it with her straight shoulders and masked face.

Tela Vasir wasn't an agent for the Shadow Broker, therefore she was spared of the gruesome vids agents like Nyxeris regularly received from their boss. But watching the act in person, hearing bone crushing sound the varren's teeth made and smelling the fresh blood mixed with animals' stale breaths and feces had more than made up for it. Vasir was trying hard not to gag.

"I've given you the lead of the salarian slave ring and you've earned the notice and the biggest praise from the Council in your long and mostly fruitless career. I like your ambition, Spectre. There's no goal too precipitous for you and no position too rarefied. I would like to help you reach your goal, but first I have to know that you can handle it." The yahg flicked his fingers, the storm shutters started to roll down and the pale lights in the room turned back on. The show was over.

Vasir had only spoken with the Shadow Broker a few times over secured communications lines and she hadn't expected the yahg to be so well spoken. What Vasir didn't know was that despite the brutal exterior the yahg was smarter than she'd given him credit for. He'd learned seventeen languages in a short few months and had taken over the entire Shadow Broker's network within a year after an agent working for the former Shadow Broker discovered him on Parnack. What she saw in the varren's den taught her to be careful where she stepped when dealing with this intelligent yet cunning creature.

"You've failed once. You might say what happened on the Lazarus Research Station wasn't entirely your fault. The human panicked and ruined your little plan. But you should've had several contingency plans." The yahg walked closer to Vasir and said in his guttural voice. "Shepard has been resurrected."

Vasir gasped. "She's alive?"

The yahg's face was expressionless, only the blinking eyes showed his interest in the conversation. "One of my operatives on Illium has gone dark. I suspect Dr. Liara T'Soni had something to do with it, and she's linked to Commander Shepard. I don't need to tell you how dangerous the Commander could be if Dr. T'Soni requested her help to wage a war against me."

"You want me to eliminate Dr. T'Soni?" Vasir accepted a datapad from the salarian behind the yahg and looked at the information.

"No, Dr. T'Soni is no threat by herself. I'd like you to eliminate Shepard and bring her body to me. Conditions of the body matter little, dead or alive, the Collectors will pay the same amount."

Vasir put the datapad in her pocket. "What about the asari?"

"Do as you wish with her, use her as a bait for Shepard or dispose of her, as long as you get the human." The yahg nodded to the guards behind Vasir. They tapped the asari on the shoulder and motioned her to leave with them. As the asari walked along the varren's pen once again, she saw the beasts licking their sharp claws and bloodied muzzles. She quickened her steps, all the while thinking how many times did that poor bastard fail his boss to deserve an end such as this.

Once they were out of the varren's den, Vasir took in a full breath of air that wasn't filled with the smell of blood and fear. The little stunt the yahg had pulled was to show that he didn't trust her. That and the way she was picked up and brought here. The Shadow Broker's agents kept her in the dark the entire journey and escorted her from the shuttle bay to the bottom deck of the ship directly. He didn't want her to see too much. As she walked toward the shuttle bay with two guards following her closely, Vasir swiped her gaze around the ceilings in the halls and corridors, paying attention to the cameras and doors that had security locks. She needed to use this opportunity to do some recon.

One thing the yahg was right about: there were no goals too high for her. The Shadow Broker was sharp at identifying people's weaknesses, and Vasir's weakness was her ambition. The fact that a new human Spectre with little training was put in a position to save the Citadel from the biggest threat the galaxy had ever seen was an abomination in her book, and Shepard's temerity telling grand stories about the Reapers, only added fuel to the fire. It should have been her, an accomplished asari commando turned Spectre who possessed the true power and military training, in Shepard's position. The human Spectre had stolen what meant to be hers and she'd pay dearly for it!

After Vasir successfully busted the salarian slave-trading ring, she was surprised to get a personal invitation to the salarian Councilor's mansion. The Councilor saw through Vasir's actions and knew that the Shadow Broker helped the Spectre. Vasir didn't bother to deny it and that earned her more credit with the Councilor.

"I invited you here to make a deal. The Shadow Broker overstepped a boundary when he fed my archrival my secrets and turned my own mistress against me. I know she's planning on moving in with my rival and that was all the Shadow Broker's fault. I'm sure that you're aware the Spectre's liaison to the Council died in the Battle of the Citadel, and we haven't found a good candidate to replace him. I could pull some strings to give you that position if you bring down this Shadow Broker."

Vasir's heart was pounding like a hunter who saw her prey within striking distance. She had been eyeing that position for a long time, being the eyes and ears in the Spectre ranks for the Council and the mouthpiece of the Council to the Spectres. It would elevate her above all Spectres and that would suit her pride much better. "But you know someone would take over for him."

The salarian Councilor knew he'd got the Spectre on the hook. He also knew about ambition. It was much better than greed. Greed could only last for so long before corruption ruined everything and there were many chances for corruption when it came to greed. But ambition could make ordinary people do great things and put them in great positions. He knew he might have found a partner he could work with. "I'm certain someone will take over, and when he does, he'll remember what happened when the Shadow Broker that crossed me."

But the yahg was more careful than Vasir had expected. As she reached the shuttle bay in the midship, she wondered if this was the only shuttle bay on the ship. The Shadow Broker's request to kill Shepard felt like the last piece of the puzzle; she could use this to get the Shadow Broker. When she'd killed the human Spectre, she'd not only have finally pulled that painful thorn on her side, but the Shadow Broker would welcome her to his real lair and she would use that opportunity to kill him. Well-placed gas bombs would take out his soldiers while a poison dart would take care of him. Then it would be just matter of switching one corpse in the pod with another, and she'd escape before anyone on the ship even realized what had happened. And what they'd do with Shepard's body? The new Shadow Broker could make the same deal with the Collectors or they could just feed her to the varren for all she cared.

But first she needed to set a trap for the human Spectre. She'd use T'Soni as the bait, and the human would walk into the trap willingly and eagerly. And the best part in her plan was that the Shadow Broker himself would provide an army for her to command in the operation. What poetic justice that would be? Vasir couldn't help but let out a grin as she stepped into the shuttle and sat in the back seat where no windows would reveal any landmark of the system the Big Whale was hiding. "I'll be back." She whispered.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shepard walked into Miranda's office and the Australian greeted her. "Shepard, what can I do for you?"

Shepard hesitated for a moment and then she walked closer, her eyes searching Miranda's desk. "Do you…um, do you have any kind of makeup, you know, cover up some of the bruises on my face?"

Miranda followed Shepard's gazed and looked at her own desk where files and datapads were organized perfectly. She looked up at Shepard. "There's nothing wrong with your face."

Shepard was now eyeing Miranda's bathroom. "Nothing wrong? It looks like a sweet potato, after it's been baked, sliced open and bashed with a meat tenderizer. Look at it!" She pointed a finger at her own face.

Miranda stood up and put herself between Shepard and her bathroom. "I don't have any makeup."

"But your face always looks perfect. You must have something. I've never used any. Could you help me out here?" Shepard's voice was almost pleading.

Miranda walked around her desk and stood in front of Shepard. She put a hand lightly under Shepard's chin and tilted her face. "I'll admit your scars should have healed quicker. The good news is I'm getting a dermal treatment upgrade to Dr. Chakwas. Once that's installed, she'll be able to help you close up all the scars and hide the implants."

"But what about the black bruises and the swollen cheeks and lips? I look like Play-Doh that has been burned and stepped on."

Miranda let go of Shepard's face. "Shepard, you know very well those will heal. Just give it a week or so."

"But I can't let Liara see my face like this!" Shepard finally came out with the true reason for her frustration.

Miranda did her best to hide a chuckle. The asari had seen Shepard at her absolute worst state when she brought Shepard's body to her. Even wearing that face, Shepard was still a big improvement from how she looked in the stasis pod. And from the body language Miranda observed, Liara wouldn't care what Shepard's face looked like, bashed sweet potato or not. Miranda had made a deal with Liara that the Cerberus operative would not reveal who brought Shepard's body to her and the asari would not contact Miranda to see if she was successful at resurrecting the Commander. So Miranda kept silent.

Seeing the chuckle Miranda could barely hide, Shepard turned around to leave. "Fine, if you won't help me, I guess I'll ask Kelly for help!"

This time Miranda actually let out her chuckle, "Good luck." But before Shepard walked out, Miranda had her own question. "Shepard, back on Omega, you told Aria that you and us, I mean Cerberus, had a temporary alliance. I'd like to know how temporary."

"Jeez, Miranda. I just wanted to borrow some makeup, and I get 20 questions on how loyal I can be to Cerberus?"

Miranda's face turned serious and her voice cooled. "Humor me, Shepard."

Shepard walked back to Miranda's desk, and her face turned icy as well. "Fine, you want the truth? I'll tell you the truth. I hate that I have to use a Cerberus ship and I hate that the Illusive Man calls the shots. I feel like a beggar! But when I think clearly, I am a beggar. My own navy wouldn't take me back, and the Council kicked me to the Terminus Systems where they clearly knew Spectres aren't welcome. I'm an orphan and a beggar, and I'm flying under false colors. So I have to swallow my pride and do what's right. But I don't have to like it, do I?"

"For some people doing the right thing would be enough." Miranda put up a hand. "Look, I'm not being self righteous here, I'm just trying to understand your motivations. It was the most puzzling part when I was rebuilding you, to understand your motivations in every decision you made."

"You said you didn't want to build a robot, yet you expect to turn on a switch to tell me what's right and wrong. How is that not being self-righteous? Years of training and working as a soldier tell me to leave this ship and go back to Alliance no matter what the consequences. That would be the right thing to do for a soldier. Then who's going to help these people? If we wait for the politicians to act, it'd be too late. So every day I have to struggle with the urge to go home, to my navy, to my roots, and deal with the guilt that I'm siding with my former enemy and death threats from my former comrades."

"Who sent you death threats?" Miranda's eyes popped.

"Corporal Toombs sent me a warning that he'd kill anyone who works for Cerberus and now that includes me. And I can't exactly blame him for saying that. I'm sure you're aware what Cerberus did to him." Miranda's expression was hard to read. Shocked, concealment and disappointment? "I hate to disappoint you, Miranda. One person entered your little experiment and another emerged. Maybe the galaxy has changed or maybe you've built the wrong person."

"Then I'd have failed." Miranda's voice sharpened. "But I know I haven't. The way I look at, you're the only person who's standing between the Collectors and the safety of humanity. I've tied my fate with yours when I took on this assignment, we all have. I don't have to like it either. But it's too important a job to fail and you're our best hope whether you like it or not. So when you finish your inner struggles with morals and standards, I'll be waiting on the other end with my weapons ready to do the job we were sent to do."

They both looked at each other, and Shepard sighed. "I only just wanted to borrow some makeup."

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Liara woke up from a nightmare in the morning. The hunters were chasing her again, silent while they approached, ever nearer. But this time, they struck with deadly force and dragged their prey away after the hunt. The bloody figure they dragged away looked familiar. "Shepard!" Liara woke with the word still lingered on her lips. She looked around the room as the nightmare tendrils cleared – it was just a dream. Mimi had curled behind her head just under her crest. The small body sent warmth that felt comforting. _It was just a nightmare. But why different this time?_

Since they had acquired the true location of the Shadow Broker's base, Liara and Nightshade had been busy preparing. Liara worked on getting her unnamed ship ready with the help from Seryna. Seryna had proved to be very experienced at hiring the right people to man the ship and helping Liara secretly install military grade defense systems and weapons. Nightshade went shopping. They'd need hacking programs for the locks on the ship and weapons for the mercs Liara planned to hire to storm the base.

"We'll need the asari commando's help too." Nightshade knew that someone like the Shadow Broker would have layers of defense for the ship and an army to guard it. She and Liara with a few mercs couldn't get the job done.

"Yes, you are right. I will ask Matriarch Aethyta for help."

Since the fiasco with Nyxeris, the office and the business had been in disarray with Liara's attention being elsewhere. Bills weren't paid, debts weren't collected and unread messages sat in a large pile. Liara had asked Seryna to help her in the office today, the first day she came back after Nightshade had killed the Observer. Liara planned to collect debts while Seryna paid the bills. A message from the port authorities caught Liara's eye, "Ship scheduled to dock, The Normandy, Frigate Class, Cerberus Registration".

"Could this be her?" Liara couldn't help the sudden trembling. "It's got to be her! Who else would name their ship Normandy?"

She pushed the comm button, "Seryna, could you pay all the docking fees for this vessel I'm sending you?"

The port authorities report didn't say when the Normandy was scheduled to dock. Liara must finish her debt collections quickly. She'd expect that Shepard would come straight over once the personnel at the docks told her who had paid her fees. Use threatening words, she thought, that would get the collections done faster. On the eighth time she repeated, "Have you faced an asari commando unit before?..." the door swooshed open behind her and she heard Seryna's boots click in. Liara didn't turn around but continued with her call, "Few humans have…" Wait, she heard another set of footsteps. "Either you pay me or I flay you alive…with my mind."

When Liara hastily ended the call and turned around, she saw a frozen smile on Shepard's face, if that_ was_ Shepard's face. For a moment, they both stared at each other, unaware Seryna had left the room quietly.

Shepard's face looked different, thinner. Cheekbones were more defined and her smile was thinner too. _Is she eating enough? Is she sleeping well? _

No longer in her scientist outfit, Liara looked more mature in an asari dress. Her face had an edge to it, more stunning. Shepard's heart pounded. _She's staring at my face. I should have waited for a few day to let my face heal more. I look like Frankenstein and I'm scaring her._

The faint red glow looked like undying charcoals still burning underneath the blue and black bruises on Shepard face. One side of her bottom lip was swollen, and a dark semi circle covered her left cheek extending all the way around her left eye. Liara let out a small whimper. _Goddess! Did Cerberus send her into battles already?_

"Liara."

"Shepard."

They both said each other's name at the same time, and they moved into an embrace. Shepard pulled back and searched for Liara's lips with hers. Liara only touched them lightly, afraid of hurting the painful looking split and swollen parts.

When Liara touched Shepard's back, she could feel the bones through her civvy clothes, an orange shirt that looked two sizes too big on her. "It's good to see you."

Noticing Liara's gaze on her unsightly face and shirt, Shepard wished she had come in full armor and helmet. At least she'd look more imposing and less disgusting. "I'm really sorry to have come unannounced. Though you seemed very informed seeing that you paid my docking fees." Shepard hesitated for a moment, "You probably know then that the new Normandy is a Cerberus ship. I know how you feel about them, please give me a chance to explain." She pointed at her own face, "Ashley didn't give me a chance and called me a traitor and beat my face to a pulp. I know how powerful your biotics are, I only ask you to give me a chance to explain." Shepard could feel perspiration forming in the usual places. She took a deep breath to calm herself down. If her face hadn't scared off Liara, she didn't want to add to it by appearing loony.

So Miranda had honored their agreement. In a way, Liara wished the Cerberus operative had told Shepard who handed her body to them. Then she'd know where Shepard stood. Liara's eyes caught something on her desk, the white picture frame displayed the small disc Nightshade had given her, a reminder of the tasks ahead. It also reminded her of the doubts and fears that Nyxeris brought out before she died. What would Shepard think if she knew the truth? "Shepard, please sit." Liara moved quickly to her desk and took the picture frame and put it in her drawer.

Shepard was following Liara to her desk and moving to sit in the chair Liara offered. But when Liara hid the picture frame, Shepard froze. She had thought about this reunion many times, planning it and preparing for it. She brought a duffle bag with two new shiny sets of rollerblades she'd bought on the Citadel. The ones she had purchased before were lost with the SR-1, and surely these new rollerblades would help rekindle the fire that once burned bright. But the cold reception from the asari and their all too brief contact sent a damning signal that Liara too had changed. Shepard was reminded again of the game time had played on her. It had been two long years for everyone, as Liara was telling her, Shepard could hear the agony in the asari's voice. She couldn't imagine the suffering and loneliness the asari must have experienced, but giving up on her and finding someone else this quickly was still a shock to the Commander. They had something very special and how could a bond that strong break in such a short time? And who was that person in the picture?

Shepard could feel the pain in her right hip again and her head started to throb. _Oh, no! Not here, not in front of Liara! Please, no!_

Watching Shepard move to the chair with a slight limp, Liara winced. "I hear you're after the Collectors."

"Yes. Since you know that, I'm guessing you know they attacked the SR-1?" Shepard put a hand on her temple trying to calm the pounding, and when that didn't work she clenched the arms of the office chair. _Not here, not in front of Liara! The damn Bekke chip._

"Do you think you can find a safe passage through the Omega 4 relay and back?" Liara couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice. _Is she ready to die again? Perhaps Nyxeris was right, she cares about her crew, her ship and her mission more than she cares about me. Why else would she leave me again? Doe she know what I had to give to bring her back?_

When Liara didn't hear an answer from Shepard, she stood up and walked over to the large window that overlooked the busy trading floor. "I can't join you, Shepard. I have my own life now and my own troubles to deal with." Shepard offered to help, but Liara shook her head without looking back. "The Shadow Broker is my problem. You have enough to worry about."

Shepard's vision started to blur, she felt a knot in her stomach that was getting tighter and tighter. She must get out of here before her body reacted to the Bekke chip's commands. She stood up but couldn't find a perfect balance. She shut her eyes and willed her knees to lock while holding the back of the chair. She remembered an injection capsule that Dr. Chakwas had put together for her to lessen the effect of the Bekke chip, her "Epi-pen" Dr. Chakwas called it, but her mind was having trouble focusing and she couldn't remember which pocket she had put it in. When she looked at her pants pocket, Shepard saw her hand trembling. It took some doing to unbutton a side pocket on her pants, and her face was dripping with sweat. When she finally opened her pocket and fished out the Epi-pen, she had lost the feeling her legs.

Liara was still talking about how her information business paid the bills during the two years Shepard was gone, and when she heard the big thud, she turned around and saw Shepard wasn't there anymore. "Shepard!" Liara ran around the table and saw Shepard's body lying on the floor, convulsing. She dropped down on the floor and took hold of the human's shoulders. "Shepard, what's wrong?"

Shepard felt her hand getting heavy and she forced all her strength into putting the Epi-pen into her exposed neck, but she couldn't lift her hand. "Help me…" Her voice shuddered.

Liara understood what Shepard wanted and she took the Epi-pen and pushed it into Shepard's neck. The seizure slowed but Shepard's body was still quavering uncontrollably. Liara took Shepard's hand, it was icy cold. "Shepard!" She shook the human's shoulders, but she didn't get any response. Liara looked up and shouted for help. Seryna rushed in and Liara told her to contact the Normandy and get help quickly. When Seryna ran back to her desk to call for help, Liara returned her attention to Shepard. "Can you hear me?" She remembered the training Pierce gave her and she opened the human's shirt and put her ear next to her heart. She could hear faint beats that were quick and erratic. "Shepard, stay with me!" She took both Shepard's hands into her own and held them tightly.

It seemed like an eternity before the Normandy crew rushed in, Dr. Chakwas with her medical bag, Miranda with her neural scanner and analyzer, Jacob with a portable stretcher and Garrus with his sniper rifle. Dr. Chakwas and Miranda immediately went to work on Shepard without so much as noticing Liara. Garrus pulled Liara back and let her hold his hand while watching the professionals work.

"Her heartbeat is irregular." Dr. Chakwas reported with a hurried voice, "Her lungs are collapsing. We must hook her up quickly!"

Miranda finished with her scans and analyzer. "It's the bloody Bekke chip. Her neural activity is off the charts, I've never seen anything like this! If we don't get the chip out now, she might fight it to the death."

Both of them waved Jacob over and together they put Shepard on the stretcher and rushed out the room, back onto the Normandy.

Liara was still standing there frozen, holding onto Garrus' hand. When the door swooshed shut and the room was quiet again, she looked at Garrus, dumfounded. "Did…did they just say she might die again?" Her voice broke as tears fell.

Garrus bent down and grabbed the duffle Shepard had brought and lead Liara toward the door still holding her hands. "Let's get back on the Normandy, Liara. I'm sure Dr. Chakwas and Miranda will do the best they can."

xxxxxxxxxxx

Shepard woke up in the med bay to Dr. Chakwas's examining eyes. The doctor waited for her to fully wake up and checked her eyes with a painfully shiny light. "We took out the Bekke implant and you've been out of surgery for two days." Shepard woke up once after the surgery but she was in an intensive care bubble and only Miranda had been in there to check on the results.

"This feels painfully familiar. The last time I agreed to let you out of bed when you're not ready was for Kaidan's parents after Virmire." The moment she spoke her thoughts, the doctor regretted her choice of topic. But the truth often didn't give anybody a choice of perfect etiquette. "This time, I let you out of bed for Liara."

Dr. Chakwas helped Shepard stand in her medical gown and surgical slippers, supporting the Commander by her elbows. "You mean I can't just sleep this off? It wasn't just a bad dream?" Shepard winced at the pounding headache.

"I miss the old Dr. Chakwas who wouldn't let me out of bed when I only had a scratch on my face." She straightened her back and winced again, this time it was her hips that felt like something sharp and hot was driving into it, but she remained standing. "If the chip's out, why do I still feel the hip pain?"

"Miranda said it'll go away in a couple of days. Your brain knows the chip is missing but your body tries to remember the feeling the Bekke chip trigged. Thankfully it'll be very temporary."

"Has Liara come aboard?" Shepard didn't remember seeing the asari when she woke up in the bubble.

"She was in here the whole time, Shepard. I sent her to your cabin to help you shower and get some fresh clothes ready for you, just like she did after Virmire." The doctor brought up the past on purpose this time. From the Commander's physical reaction to the couple's reunion, the doctor sensed trouble. Bigger than what gave Shepard the intense headache after Freedom's Progress and made her collapse after Horizon. But this was Liara, the only one who stood by Shepard when the entire galaxy had buried her. There was never an ounce of doubt in the doctor's mind that a lover's quarrel could withstand the intensity of the passion they had for each other. They just needed to talk it out, she surmised.

"Doc, this ain't Virmire. I'm not the same Marine. And that's not the Liara you think you know." Shepard's voice was deceptively calm.

"Why do you say that, dear?"

"Let me ask you, whose picture do I have on my desk?" Shepard's calm was starting to bother the doctor.

"Liara's."

"And whose pictures do you have on your desk?"

"My godchildren's."

"And do you know whose picture is on my mother's desk? It was me holding a track and field trophy when I was 16." Shepard stopped for a moment. The doctor watched the Commander's calming exterior turn melancholy. "Would you hide the picture if you don't want to hide who's the person you love? When I saw Liara in her office, she put the picture on her desk into her drawer so I wouldn't see who was on that picture. I'm sure if it was me on that picture, she wouldn't hide it."

Looking at the deflated young woman, Dr. Chakwas searched for words that didn't hurt. "Have you asked her?"

"How?" Shepard was leaning against the bio bed, in no hurry to get to her cabin. "Hey Liara, how's it going? I was gone for two years, which is a blip of time in your thousand-year lifespan, but I understand you've moved on and found someone else. Who's the lucky bastard?"

Dr. Chakwas didn't have to search for words this time. "Shepard, you weren't just gone. For all intends and purposes, you were dead. We attended your funeral. Even in marriage, the contract is only good until one's death." The doctor sighed at her own words. "Talk to her, Shepard. She just watched you nearly died again and she was very broken up. I can tell you it doesn't take a genius to see she still has feelings for you."

"Yeah, they all seemed to have very strong feelings for me. I much prefer Ashley's punches, calling me a traitor, calling me an ass, just come out and say. At least I know where I stand. Much more palatable than the cold shoulder I got from Liara."

The doctor didn't have the heart to point out that Shepard's death had a profound impact on everyone who loved her. They had only 2 years to deal with her death and certainly hadn't had any time to deal with her return. The doctor saw clearly that Shepard hadn't come to terms with her own death and resurrection, and the doctor was also quite certain that Liara had more issues with both. She sighed again.

"My dear, when we crashed on Alleir without you, we were all lost. We have different ways to deal with what happened. My way to deal with it is to stick close to you and watch over you like I did on the SR1. You may think I'm doing this completely out of loyalty to you, perhaps that's true. But it gives me solace so that I can keep going. But Liara was different. She was very much broken after Alleir. I have no idea where she found her solace during this past two years, but I'm glad she did. You don't need me to tell you that she loved you deeply. Don't you think you two at least deserve a talk?"

Shepard pushed off the bed and limped towards the door. "One thing is clear to me, doc. This time around, I'm the one who's taking orders from everybody else."

The doctor smiled, "Go get them, tiger!"

The elevator to the loft was slow as usual, but it wasn't slow enough this time for Shepard to collect her broken body and bleak mind. Her hip and her head were competing for the two painkillers Dr. Chakwas had given her. She tossed them in her mouth and chewed them down with a bitter grudge. The sad part was the realization that no amount of painkillers could cure her heartache if her suspicions turned out to be true.

_Can I just ride in this elevator forever? Why did I have to come back?_

Staring at the empty hallway leading to the loft, Shepard wasn't moving. EDI asked, "Shepard, did you wish to visit another floor?"

No answer from the Commander.

"Did my program miscalculate the information?"

Still no answer.

"Joker performed a check-up for my basic ship control functions yesterday, I shouldn't have made any mistake at directing the elevator. Perhaps I should check the ship's logs to see if he was intoxicated while performing the check-up and ask him to repeat the task when he's completely sober."

"No, EDI. You didn't miscalculate." As much as Shepard enjoyed listening to EDI's monologue she knew it was she who needed to face the music.

When Shepard walked into her cabin, Liara was putting her civvy clothes on her bed and looked a little puzzled at the mismatched colors and sizes. She had laid all Shepard's pants and shirts on the large bed, but she couldn't pick an outfit that had the right size and the matching colors that didn't hurt the eyes in harsh lighting.

Shepard took her mismatched clothes from Liara's hands. The old and warm feeling threatened to invade the levee. She almost died after Virmire. Liara had laid out her Dress Blues and helped her out of the med bay gown not unlike the one she was wearing. Shepard looked at the clothes in her hand again, "I haven't found the store Hannah bought my tank tops and my pants from on the Citadel."

"Have you talked to Hannah since…"

"No. I'm working for the enemy now, or at least that's what the Alliance thinks. I don't want to put her career in jeopardy." She paused. "Actually, I'm more terrified that she'd be disappointed with me. At least, I'm a hero to her when I'm dead. Maybe it's better that way." She paused again. "At least for now."

Liara took a step away from Shepard's bed. She wanted to run out of the room, or at least to hide somewhere. Somewhere Shepard couldn't see her or ask her how she ended up with Cerberus.

Watching Liara creating distance, Shepard's heart sunk further. The memory of Liara holding her in her arms after she was injured on Virmire was clear as day, like a vid that played her favorite moments over and over. When Shepard had thought back of time she'd spent with Liara on the SR1, that moment had been indeed one of her favorites.

But that was another time and another place. The sweet girl with a mischievous cat wasn't here anymore. This was a different time, a different ship and this was a different Liara.

_So that makes me a different Shepard. Dr. Chakwas was most definitely wrong!_

"I'm going to change. Look around and make yourself at home." Shepard turned her back and headed to the bathroom.

Shepard looked at herself in the mirror after she was fully dressed. Her clothes looked hideous and her shirt looked like it could swallow her. She ran her fingers over the long scars on her face that still glowed red when she felt angry. The bruises and cuts on her face looked hideous too.

_It's definitely a different Shepard._

She came out of the bathroom, Liara had moved to the armor locker. "You have a nice bed." The asari didn't know what else to say.

"I've not slept in it." Shepard's voice had agony. But she was trying to make the best impression now that she realized she couldn't go back. _Let's put on a good show, for an old friend._

"Why?" The asari asked.

"It's too big." _And too empty without my favorite hanar._ Shepard didn't want to think about their nicknames for each other that were used only in the most private moments, or the passion they once felt after the Battle of the Citadel, or the joy of discovering each other's body and minds in that swimming pool, and most of all the hours upon hours they spent in that hotel room making love. The memory she cherished had turned into her enemy. She must defend herself against it or she'd falter and break.

"Where do you sleep then?" Was there concern in her voice?

"Oh, here and there. I don't care where I sleep really. I have a small portable cot. Sometimes I sleep in a small storage hold down at the engineering, but most times I sleep in the small room behind the med bay."

"Oh." There was knowing in the simple word. Liara wondered if Shepard had nightmares like hers. _Is she running from the hunters too? _"Does Dr. Chakwas still use it as a storage?"

The pained way Liara asked the question made Shepard look up. Liara moved her gaze away from the human's face. "No. It's a room for our ship's AI now."

_It's definitely a different ship!_

The asari scanned around the room again, not wanting to look at Shepard. "You have a space hamster? And so many fish!"

"I take him to where I sleep every night. But the fish aren't mine. I buy them, but my Yeoman feeds them. I think Kelly really likes fish."

"Oh."

"How's Mimi doing?"

"She is doing fine. She has grown." _And she misses you._

Liara could do presentation too apparently.

"Are you eating well?" The asari had finally landed her eyes on Shepard's face. "You look thin."

Shepard shifted on her feet uncomfortably. "I had these bad headaches and hip pain, and I have to take all these pills for my implants that mess up my stomach. I don't remember most things I eat to be honest." She moved to her desk and hid Liara's picture when the asari was staring at the fish tank. She felt so foolish having someone else's girl on her desk now.

Liara noticed the change in the position of the picture and took another step away from the Commander.

Shepard knew the meaning of this physical distance Liara was creating between them. If this was the old Liara, she'd had gone down to the mess hall and grabbed anything edible and shoved it down Shepard's mouth like those forced-fed ducks in old Chinese restaurants. The asari was that stubborn when it came to caring for Shepard's health. But instead, this Liara moved one step away.

_This is definitely a different Liara!_

* * *

**A/N:** Next up: we visit the lair of the Shadow Broker in "There Is Nothing Else To Love".


	16. Chapter 16 There Is Nothing Else To Love

Why Love What You Will Lose?  
There Is Nothing Else To Love.

-Louise Glück

* * *

**Second Life**

**Chapter Sixteen – ****There Is Nothing Else To Love**

In the med bay of the Normandy, Liara had brought Mimi T'Soni aboard at the request of Dr. Chakwas and Garrus. Garrus had not only demanded to see Mimi but also brought out his tools in hopes of modifying Mimi's carrying case to give her more room now that the cat had grown much in size and weight. As soon as Liara let the cat out of her case, Mimi immediate jumped into Garrus' arms for which she earned a big grin from the turian. Dr. Chakwas stroked the purring animal and made baby talk as she patted her.

In between grinning and joining in on the baby talk, Garrus looked up at Liara. "Thank you for bringing her, Liara. I… we've missed her."

Liara smiled at this familiar sight and remembered how much time both of her friends had spent in her small quarters playing with Mimi back on the SR-1. "You are welcome, Garrus. She is as much mine as…" She wanted to say 'the crew's', but this was a different crew on a different ship. She flared a glance at the door to the AI core room where Shepard was resting. An ache returned to her stomach when she thought about their meeting two days ago, the same ache she felt when Shepard refused her company when she offered to stay with the human while she recovered from her surgery.

"Actually, I was wondering if I could leave her here for a while. I have some business to attend to and a meeting with the commandos on the Blue Sabre."

Garrus' mandibles shook with excitement but he tried to keep his voice even. "It won't be a problem, Liara. Take your time. We'll take good care of Mimi for you."

The truth was Liara had to get out of here. Her meeting with Shepard had not been what she'd expected. Why couldn't she run into Shepard's arms and tell her how much she had missed her? Why did Nyxeris' words echo in her mind every time she looked at Shepard's face and saw doubts reflecting in her eyes? And why did both her mother and her lover leave her so readily when they knew she had nobody else left in the galaxy?

But what puzzled Liara the most was why Shepard didn't try to pursue her like she did in their first romantic encounter. If Miranda had indeed kept silent and Shepard had no idea that it was Liara who handed her to Cerberus, what were Shepard's reasons for her indifference and disinterest? Death had left indelible mark on all of us. Perhaps this Shepard was a different person altogether. Their first meeting was all too brief. If this Shepard were indeed another person, Liara would have sacrificed her innocence for the survival of the galaxy, like tragic figures in ancient stories who sacrificed themselves for a year of good weather or a fruitful harvest. Would the hunters still haunt her in her dreams now that she had made her sacrifice? Or was she wrong to have wanted more? Could a hero be the savior of the galaxy as well as a devoted lover? Liara was no longer certain.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Aethyta had to mute a snort when the chief of medical staff on the Blue Sabre handed her a cane.

"I don't want you to put too much weight on that leg and don't use your biotics just yet." The Chief was almost as old as Aethyta. While her "Doctor's Orders" were followed undisputedly by others, she knew that Aethyta was playing a game with her.

"As soon as I get to my quarters, I'll sit down on my comfortable 'rack'. No, I wouldn't dare to use biotics under my current condition. No way." Aethyta didn't know how to hide her sarcasm and that was her way of telling the Chief, 'I'll do whatever the fuck I damn please.'

The Chief knew how to play the game too. "You do that, Matriarch. Or I can always sedate you to help you heal. I do have that authority."

The minute Aethyta got back to her quarters, she tossed the cane across the room. "I'm not a fucking cripple!" She hated being old. Aethyta was no stranger to injuries, she'd been in enough battles and fights that she'd almost expected them. But she healed a lot faster when she was younger. She remembered in her tender maiden years when she saved Aria's life, she was both shot and stabbed, but she finished the fight with her injuries and a week later was walking around Omega as if nothing had happened to her. That had greatly impressed Aria. "You're fucking durable, Thyta!"

Even after she reached the Matriarch's age, when she was injured defending that temple with Benezia, she killed more mercs and looters after she was shot in the leg than her bondmate had during the entire battle. But Benezia wasn't one who gave out praise that easily. She mostly used praise as political leverage. Her way of showing how impressed she was with Aethyta was buying her the best rifle and mods, which Aethyta used and cherished still. She shook her head, "I hate being old!" She stared at her old rifle hanging on the rack. Nowadays, these kids were way too into geeky stuff, scopes to help aim and implants to help their eyesight, a bunch of cheaters! She missed the way her father taught her how to fight and hunt, with a shotgun at close range and a hunting varren that sniffed out prey miles away. Of course nobody hunted with varren anymore, rather nobody hunted anymore period. There were very few varren trainers left, even on Tuchanka. Another lost language, another lost era.

Aethyta called up her biotics and picked up the cane from the floor and twirled it like a baton. "Don't use my biotics my ass." She smiled mischievously.

Onyx's voice came on her comm. "Matriarch, Commander Shepard of the Normandy requested to come aboard and an audience with you."

Aethyta had been briefed on the return of the human Spectre. "I'll be damned!" You live a thousand years and there were still new things to surprise you. The kid had done it! The human actually came back! "Permission granted only to Commander Shepard, none of the goons from Cerberus."

Onyx and four of her commandos were waiting for Shepard in the Blue Sabre's shuttle bay. As the human Spectre exited the craft, Onyx called her unit into a formal Alliance salute. Shepard was surprised to be received like this; so far the warmest greetings since she came back had come from strangers. She thanked Anderson silently for shipping her N7 armor, which had just arrived yesterday, she'd have felt like an impostor to accept such an honor in her Cerberus armor. "You saved a lot of my friends in the Sixth Fleet during the Battle of the Citadel." Onyx explained the reason for her gesture and led Shepard into the meeting room.

Aethyta gave a nod to Onyx, and the commando took her leave. The Matriarch walked to Shepard with a slight limp, and she first hugged the human tightly and then she hit her shoulder with a fist. The human looked surprisingly small. "The hug was for what you did for Matriarch Benezia and the fist was for what you did to Liara." Aethyta's gaze lingered on the scars that still glowed a faint red on Shepard's face. Doctor Chakwas was still waiting for Miranda's dermal treatment upgrade.

Shepard didn't expect such a show of emotion from a stranger, an asari Matriarch at that. But soon she learned Aethyta wasn't your typical asari Matriarch.

"That Saren was a piece of varren shit. I'd have killed him myself if I knew where to find his ass. You did us a service, Commander. I own you a few rounds of the best batarian ale."

Shepard could hear what Aethyta wasn't saying – the hatred for someone who took something very precious from them. "You knew Matriarch Benezia well?"

"You could say that." She tried to conceal her emotions, but her voice betrayed her.

"I actually was the last one to see the Matriarch alive and talk with her. I've never met anyone as wise and courageous as Matriarch Benezia."

Aethyta permitted herself a slow shudder upon hearing Shepard's words. She pointed at a chair and sat down herself. _So she was the last to see Nezzy._

Shepard sat down and stayed quiet for a while. The deaths she witnessed during her time on the SR-1 had been in her dreams and her thoughts lately. Jenkins, Kaidan and Matriarch Benezia. They were all gone yet she was still here. Since the meeting with Liara, Shepard felt almost like reliving the days after the Battle of the Citadel. The days filled with medal ceremonies and victory parades while all she felt was guilt and uncertainty. The guilt that so many had died in battle while she gained fame and power, and the uncertainty of what was yet to come. After meeting with Liara two days ago, the old guilt came back. Pressly died and twenty-some crewmembers died in the attack on the SR-1, yet somehow she was still here. History liked to repeat itself, like the dreams she kept having. "We had tried to save the Matriarch, but we failed." That sounded like an excuse, Shepard lowered her head.

Shepard was not at all what Aethyta expected. The touch of sadness in the human's voice brought instant closeness between them. Aethyta put a hand on Shepard's knee. "Perhaps one day you could share the Matriarch's last moments?"

Aethyta's reaction didn't escape Shepard, this Matriarch must have been close to Benezia. She would have to find out more about them, but not today. Today she came for Liara. "Liara told me that you have been helping her deal with the Shadow Broker's agents."

Aethyta took a deep breath and updated Shepard on the situation with the Observer and Liara's ambition to take down the Shadow Broker. Shepard listened to everything carefully. The more she learned what happened to Liara in this past two years, the more she realized how difficult it must have been for the asari. Thank god she had help from the Matriarch and the commandos, perhaps it was a good thing that she has found someone who supported her and comforted her while Shepard was absent. Shepard winced in pain when she thought about the person in Liara's picture. "Liara mentioned she needed to rescue someone from the Shadow Broker."

"Feron." Aethyta nodded. "Yes, the drell saved Liara's life and she's hell bent on getting him back."

_So that's the name of the one in that picture and he's the reason Liara wanted to go after the Shadow Broker._ Shepard sighed, "I offered my help, but Liara turned it down. I thought perhaps she values your advice, Matriarch. And perhaps you could persuade her to accept my help. It's likely the Shadow Broker has an army guarding him."

Aethyta could hear the frustration in Shepard's voice and she wondered what had happened in the couple's first meeting. "You just came back from the dead. This is a dangerous mission. You sure you want to go with her?"

Shepard had a sad smile on her face. "I'd follow her anywhere." _But she doesn't need me anymore. _"I'd also like to look at your armory. Liara doesn't have a proper set of armor. I won't let her get into a fight with the Shadow Broker in her current armor."

Aethyta smiled brightly. "A woman after my own heart. I'll take you to the armory myself and we can pick out a set together."

The comm beeped, Aethyta held up a hand. "Go ahead."

"Matriarch," G.G.'s voice came on. "I've completed my modifications for the lock hacking software Liara wanted and she was supposed to come by and pick it up an hour ago. She hasn't shown up. You want Fin 2 and I to take a look at her place?"

Aethyta's face turned paled. Shepard already started towards the shuttle bay, "Have your commandos meet me at my shuttle."

G.G. and Fin 2 took Shepard to Liara's apartment on Illium, they found the local police and another Spectre there, but no Liara. "Thank the goddess she installed bullet proof windows!" Fin 2 commented. The asari Spectre updated them on what had happened and a quick search around the room indicated that Liara was meeting someone in Nos Astra's business district. The Spectre offered to take them there.

Tela Vasir had set her plan in motion: the Shadow Broker's men had grabbed Liara while she staged a sniping incident to attract the human. Now she'd got them all into the Dracon Trade Center, and she'd surprise the human by meeting her at the top floor and offering her a bullet in the head. But first, she'd use the Shadow Broker's army to thin out Shepard's forces, which was not an easy task. Shepard had brought two commandos and called in reinforcements from the Normandy.

It was doubly disappointing when Vasir found out that neither army was able to stop the human Spectre's forces nor the mercs could hold their hostage. Before Vasir could spring her trap, Liara had escaped from captivity thanks to her Dagger of Varren's Tooth that the mercs failed to discover when they searched her for weapons. Now with all guns pointing at her, Vasir changed tactics. "I'm going after the Shadow Broker to take him down. I needed leverage to get to his lair. And since he had a bounty on your head, I was going to use you as my ticket to get him. If you already know his location, we can work together!"

Shepard didn't trust Vasir's motives, but she did believe that the asari Spectre wanted the same thing as they did, to take down the Shadow Broker. Having an official order from the Council, as Vasir claimed, did help with the matter. It would protect Liara against any legal action, as people would die in this dangerous operation.

A plan was devised quickly: they'd storm the Big Whale with three ships and with three ground units. The Normandy and the Blue Sabre would create a blockage to prevent the Shadow Broker's ship from running while the Liara's unnamed ship scrambled signals at the Mass Relay to stop any reinforcements. And thanks to the data Nightshade had gathered from Nyxeris, they knew the layout of the ship. The asari commandos would attack from the front of the ship to take control of the main operations of the ship. Nightshade, Seryna and half of the Normandy crew would attack in the midship to secure the shuttle bay then move into the prison block and torture chamber. Liara, Shepard, Miranda and Vasir would storm the information center in the aft of the ship.

With the plan finalized, three ships set their course to Hagalaz. Liara had decided to stay on the Normandy since all her ground teammates were on the ship. It would take them all night to get to the Big Whale, Shepard had offered to let Liara sleep in her loft, but Liara refused the offer and stayed with Mimi in the med bay along with Vasir. Kelly had come by earlier and dropped off some bedding and pillows for the guests. Though the lights were dimmed and Mimi had curled up next to her, Liara had trouble falling asleep.

She tried to sit up quietly, but in darkness, she heard Vasir. "Can't sleep?"

"I am sorry if I woke you. I was just going to get some tea."

Vasir sat up as well. "You mind if I join you? I can't sleep either."

Both asari sat down with a cup of tea in their hands. "I love this tea. Shepard must have picked this up from the Citadel, she knew how much I loved it." Thinking that the human couldn't find a decent clothing store to buy herself some clothes that fit her but she remembered where to buy the asari her favorite tea, Liara let out a sigh.

Vasir observed the asari across the table. She had never looked at Liara closely. Sure, she'd seen her through a long range scope on her sniper rifle, but she was hired to kill and not to observe the mood or the looks of the person. Staring at the freckles and human eye-brow like markings, Vasir couldn't move her eyes from Liara's face. And when Liara looked up at her, the large sparkly eyes almost brought out the word "perfection" from the Spectre. She quickly looked down at her tea. "I miss good tea when I'm not on Thessia."

"So do I." Vasir was the only other Spectre Liara had ever met, and she was so different from Shepard. During the planning meeting, Vasir talked much about rules and regulations of the Council and the importance of bringing down the Shadow Broker. It was convincing enough for everyone to believe that she had been on a Spectre crusade to rid get of this shadowy figure. But Liara sensed there was something more but she couldn't put her finger on it. "What else do you miss when you're not on Thessia?" She struck a new topic.

"The opera." Vasir felt a slight regret after telling the truth. She was supposed to be careful, not to reveal too much of herself when she was among those whom she didn't trust. And she didn't trust that many. But Liara somehow was different. Even on a dangerous quest such as this where the chances of betrayal were many, she still managed to make Vasir feel at easy, hopeful and intrigued, even when the asari Spectre knew this was hardly the time or place for anything but being cunning and on guard.

"I love opera, too!" Liara's voice softened, shared experiences softened things in many ways. "I love the epic adventures of the huntresses."

Vasir produced a tight smile. "I have a little sister who likes those. At first I dreaded taking her to see these operas, but then I grew to like them myself. They can be very… entertaining."

They shared a chuckle. Liara took another sip of her tea. "What kind of opera do you prefer?"

"The ancient tragedies."

"My mother used to love them!" Liara's voice rang with warmth.

"Must have come with age. The taste for tragedy, I mean." Liara laughed and Vasir was suddenly curious about the asari maiden. She had expected the worst from Liara. After all, she was a pureblood and the only daughter of one of the most powerful Matriarchs. If her pedigree didn't spoil her rotten, she must be a power hungry fiend or why else would she follow the human Spectre into danger and make powerful enemies such as the Shadow Broker. But talking to her in person, Vasir had realized how wrong she was and that puzzled her greatly. Then why else would she love the human Spectre if she didn't crave power?

Liara noticed Vasir's stare, she continued. "Regardless the genre, we are doomed to be disappointed outside of Thessia. It is harder to find an opera singer than a Justicar outside the Asari worlds."

Vasir laughed. "You're right about that." She paused and looked at Liara for a moment, and then she bent down closer to the table while lowering her voice. "Can I ask you a question? Do you not find Shepard arrogant?"

Liara first lowered her head to listen to Vasir's question and then she laughed. "Far from it, Shepard is the most humble person I know." Observing the surprised on Vasir's face, Liara shook her head. "Shepard never puts herself in front of anyone else's needs."

"But she has the title of Savior of the Citadel. She's hailed as a hero, an untouchable." Vasir didn't want to believe Liara.

Liara sighed. "She never wanted any of that. In fact, she hated it." Still doubts in Vasir's eyes, Liara thought for a moment, "Do you remember seeing her in the medal ceremony given by the Council after the Battle of the Citadel?"

Vasir shifted in her seat, uncomfortably. She **had** seen the vid only after the fact. She wasn't important enough to be recalled from her mission to defend the Citadel. She remembered the glittering words the Councilors and dignitaries showered on this so-called hero of the Citadel. Praise, medals and titles she had craved throughout her career as a Spectre, all laid at this human's feet. Oddly when she thought back to the vid now, she couldn't remember what Shepard had said during the ceremony, but she did remember Shepard smiling. That arrogant smile!

Liara's voice continued across the table. "Shepard didn't give any speech. After the ceremony, she told me that so many had died, giving their most precious thing to defend the Citadel. She was an imposter in place of the real heroes. But during the ceremony when I looked at the people watching her standing on that stage, I saw hope, trust and admiration. She didn't command them to give her anything nor did she make demands. Her face didn't glow with triumph, but showed pain. She looked at her feet the entire time the politicians piled praise on her. The more they piled on, the more pained her face turned. And when she finally looked up and she looked at the audience, she found my face." Liara paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "When she looked into my eyes, she smiled. She told me later that it brought her happiness when she realized she had saved me, and if she saved one life, all her years of training and sacrifice would have paid off. And that smile was the most beautiful smile I have ever seen."

Vasir put her tea down and leaned back in her chair. Liara's voice was in some kind of dreamy state, the way when one thought of the messengers of the Goddess, when you see an angel who revealed themselves to the mere mortals with a glimpse of their full glory. How could anyone that arrogant capture the imagination of this fascinating asari? "You still love her?"

Liara found it hard to lie to this asari who was practically a stranger only a few moments ago. "Deeply. I can't imagine being with anybody else but her."

"I understand now why you wanted to bring her back. But how did you know she'd come back the same person?"

"I didn't." Lower voice this time from Liara, and the dreamy state was gone.

"So did she?"

"Did she what?"

"Did she come back the same person?"

Liara didn't have an answer for that. Judging from the ache she started to feel again in her stomach, she knew she couldn't come up with anything she could use to convince herself, let alone convince another.

Vasir felt anger on behalf of the asari sitting across the table who got shafted by this human who claimed to love her. "What? She's too good for you now?"

"No, of course not. She did not say that." Liara's protest sounded weak. "Though I am no longer the person she fell in love with, that much is true."

"I don't give a fuck who you turned into, you waited for her, you were responsible for bringing her back! She doesn't know that, does she?" Vasir saw through Liara. "By the goddess, does she not see that you're still into her?" Vasir could see the pain on Liara's face, the pain she had felt many times in her own life. When Vasir thought about her last lover, a turian, did he love his Vindicator rifle, or was it an Avenger? It never bothered Vasir that she didn't remember, but it bothered her now. _I bet Liara knows what kind of socks her human prefers. _"Why do you still love someone who thinks she's too good for you? Why haven't you freed yourself from someone who would rather die than to be with you?"

Liara knew that Vasir had misunderstood her and it would take too long to explain it clearly. So she kept quiet but she couldn't quiet her mind. _Could Shepard have seen that I'd changed so much and that I'm beyond redemption? And what would stop her from throwing her life away again if she didn't care to stay with me the first time around?_

Liara looked up at Vasir, "I have been wondering why she would rather go down with the ship than stay with me when the SR-1 was destroyed."

"Well, have you asked her?" Liara shook her head. Vasir couldn't help but pound her hand on the table, rattling the teacups. "Ask her!"

Vasir's unexpected outcry on her behalf had sent Liara into the elevator. The asari Spectre was right, if she sought any kind of closure to be able to move on she needed to find the answers, or at least one answer. _Why wasn't I good enough for her to stay with me_?

The slow elevator ride did nothing to calm her desire for the truth. As soon as she heard Shepard say 'come in', Liara didn't even consider how late it was or what Shepard was doing at her desk. "I would like to ask you a question, Shepard! And I want an honest answer."

Shepard was still going through the battle plan and studying the layout of the Big Whale. She knew she couldn't sleep, not with Liara in the med bay, blocking her way into the small room behind it. Or more dangerously what she'd do when she saw the asari again.

"Vasir said I should find out the truth about something and I agree with her. Why did you choose to die with the SR-1?" Liara didn't know if Shepard was surprised that this was Vasir's idea or at the question.

Shepard didn't understand what prompted Liara to barge in here in the small hours of the morning before the big battle and dig up old memories. "What does it matter? I died and I came back."

Liara couldn't control her temper any longer. "What does it matter? Do you have any idea what these past two years meant to me? What I had to give up?"

Shepard could feel her own frustration surfacing. If Liara had moved on, what was the point of opening up old wounds again? "Are you pissed that I died or that I came back? I didn't have any choice in either, you know!"

That only fueled Liara's temper. "You had a choice to evacuate like everyone else did."

Shepard wanted to end this discussion. "I never wanted to die, okay? Let's just leave at that."

"We will not leave at that, Shepard! You will tell me why you didn't get into the escape pod with me!"

Shepard gathered up her datapads and moved towards the door. "I have my reasons and they're mine. I don't care to share them."

Liara stood between Shepard and the door, blocking her escape. "Was it to save Joker?"

"Not entirely."

"Was it because you had to go down with the ship?" Liara's voice raised another octave.

"No."

"Then enlighten me!" Liara shouted.

"What if I don't want to tell you?"

"Then meld with me so that I can see it for myself." The asari's voice was dead serious.

"See what?"

"What was so important that you could not come with me? What was it that was so damned important? More important than being with me?"

Shepard stared at the asari's angry face and she opened her mouth but couldn't find the words. She moved aside, trying to get around the asari. "I'm leaving."

Liara mirrored her move and blocked her again. "I want to see!"

"You're going to force me into a meld?" Now Shepard sounded angry too.

That gave Liara a pause, but her eyes were still a pair of furies. She stood her ground. "You will not leave this room until I understand why you put me through this last two years. Two very long years."

Something in the "two" and "very long" deflated Shepard's temper completely. She looked away from Liara's furious eyes and swallowed. She put the datapads back on her desk and she walked over to the fish tank watching colorful fish swim along with the tranquil music. Many nights since she came back, she had the same dream where she couldn't catch her breath and she would wake up startled and panting for breath. Staring at the ceiling in the darkness of the storage space below engineering or listened to the humming of EDI's processor in the small room behind the med bay, Shepard had tried so hard not to think about that day that began in the arms of the asari and ended in the embrace of death.

Watching Shepard putting an arm on the fish tank and resting her forehead on that arm, Liara blinked. As though she had adjusted the lenses in her eyes, the fire was gone. They had turned into deep blue. Shepard's shoulders were bony, she looked as though she was carrying invisible weight that stressed her body and she looked even thinner than when the asari first walked into the Loft. Liara swallowed too and looked down, unable to move.

Shepard wanted to crawl back into the small storage hold below the Engineering deck, back into the darkness. She shouldn't have died, or at the very least, she shouldn't have come back. Whoever's idea it was to bring her back, she wanted to scream at that person. But Liara's face stopped her from running away and she was quite tired of running away from herself. "Fine." Shepard extended her hands palm down in front of Liara, but when she saw the red glowing light through her scars that made them look like they were burning, she turned her hands palm up. "I'll show you what you want to see."

Shepard's voice was flat, defeated almost. It was actually a relief that she didn't have to play hero now. Liara took Shepard's hands. The warm skin gave Liara pause, but she quickly whispered, "Embrace eternity."

_Fire burning on the Normandy. Screaming, then the Commander's orders for her to leave and get in an escape pod. Liara's hesitation, then she turned and disappeared from the view. Space, the gut of the ship visible everywhere, pieces of metal and a single chair floating in the air, like in a photograph, nothing moving. _

"_We have to abandon ship!" Shepard ordered Joker._

"_I won't leave her!" Joker insisted._

"_I won't either, Joker." Shepard tapped on the helm console that displayed escape pod status. "I won't leave until all the escape pods are ejected. Liara is in one of them. I have to make sure she's safe."_

"_You got it Commander." Joker didn't hesitate. "Attempting another evasive maneuver."_

_Shepard ran from the bridge to watch the energy beam cut through the ship behind them like a flaming knife through butter, "Shit!" She turned back to Joker. "Report!"_

"_The last one is launching now!" Joker shouted._

"_Get to the escape pod now, Joker!" Shepard dragged the pilot through the escape pod door ignoring his protest about his arm, but she turned around again to check that the last one had launched successfully, she had to hold on until Liara was safe. She promised her mother, she promised Liara and she promised herself. _

"_Come on, Commander!" Joker shouted behind her._

_The light finally turned green, the pods launched successfully. A grin started to spread on Shepard's face until the reflections of the energy beam hit the broken hull right beside her. She had half a second to hit the escape pod door for Joker, but she didn't have the 2 seconds to get in herself. _

_Shepard hit the large button as an explosion bounced her into a metal beam then spit her into space. _

_She couldn't breath, she couldn't reach the holes that leaked life out of her from the back, she could only watch the pieces of the Normandy falling away from her, she only had enough air to say "I love you, Liara. I'll always love you."_

_Then complete darkness. _

Both Shepard and Liara took a deep breath when Liara's eyes turned back to blue, the ocean blue with waves of tears flowing. Liara's knees buckled and she crumbled to the floor. Shepard dropped to her knees holding Liara in her arms.

"I never wanted to leave you. Nothing was more important than you." Shepard didn't know if her own voice was shaking or if the asari's sobbing rocked her. She didn't know if she still could provide comfort to the one she loved or if Liara required someone else to fill that void. But in this room, at this moment, this was the reunion Shepard had imagined, holding her beloved in her arms, sharing the sorrow they both harbored and reestablishing hope together.

In this room and at this moment, there was no death or reawakening. There was only Shepard and her Liara.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Garrus had insisted on getting the Thanix canon upgrade the minute he got on the ship and it had paid off tenfold. Their forward guns cut through the defense turrets the Shadow Broker's Base, the Big Whale, like they were toys, and the canon ripped through the gunships before they even had a chance to fire a single rocket.

"Yeah, baby! Take that!" The usually calm and even-keeled turian jumped up in excitement, his head almost hitting the ceiling of the forward battery control room. When he landed back on his feet, his hips started to sway as though he was doing a turian version of the cha cha dance. "Give me something else to hit, EDI!"

EDI replied in her monotone. "As soon as Joker brings us to the next tactical position, I will send you the updated targets. There are more turrets and we've only taken down 40-percent of the gunships on the Shadow Broker's Base. But we must be careful not to hit the main body of the ship as our ground teams are attacking from forward, midship and aft positions."

Garrus stopped his dancing. "EDI, I'm well aware of our tactical plan. Just inform me of the next targets. My baby is ready to cut through some metal!" As he ran his palm along the canon silos, Garrus started to bob his head along with a tune he was humming.

With both the Blue Sabre and Garrus' Thanix canons blocking the escape routes of the Big Whale, the yahg sent out a distress signal to his two reserve ships in another system. With any luck, they'd be here in a couple of hours. His men only had to hold the defense until the reinforcements arrived. But what he wasn't expecting was Liara's unnamed ship that had been guarding the space not far from the Mass Relay and jamming the signal for any ship to lock on and pass through.

The door hacking software Nightshade had purchased on the black market on Illium had been modified by G.G., and it took no time at all, all ground teams were inside of the Big Whale. Shepard had teamed up with Miranda to take point while Vasir and Liara covered their rear. The narrow corridors in the aft part of the ship suited the small but powerful team. As they quickly made their way towards the information center, Aethyta and the commandos reported in that they had taken control of the ship's navigation. Nightshade, Seryna and the recently hired mercs had also secured the shuttle bay and Nightshade had found Feron alive! Now they just needed to take care of the big boss who was surrounded and cut off from his own people.

"Commander Shepard, you're here for the drell, it's reckless even for you." The yahg talked through the loudspeaker. "Your companions however had better reasons to be here. Did Spectre Vasir tell you that the salarian Councilor promised her the top position in the Spectre's ranks if she killed me? And did your asari friend tell you who handed your body to Cerberus?"

Miranda recognized the yahg's tactics. "Psychological warfare, the Shadow Broker is smart. It's a good card to play when you have nowhere to go."

Yahg's voice came on again, "Ms. Lawson, when was the last time you talked to the one you care about the most? And the one you fear the most, do you know what he's planning now? I can offer any information you ever wish to possess, information that's far more valuable than anything you've seen."

Only Vasir wasn't in shock when the team stormed the room and saw who the Shadow Broker was. Liara recovered quickly enough to recognize he was a yahg. With three biotics hitting the yahg from different directions, Shepard landed a few punches. The four of them started the tough fight together but it was Liara who ended it by breaking the power conduit and frying the yahg in a massive power surge.

Shepard looked over at Miranda who was buried under a pile of rubble that used to be one of the information kiosks and half of a column. She looked over at Liara whose biotics still simmered as she panted slightly. The asari instinctively looked at Shepard, a habit the Commander had drilled into her during ground missions on the SR-1: always check in with your CO after a fight. Liara gave Shepard a nod to let her know she was uninjured. Shepard turned to unbury Miranda. The Cerberus operative had a deep cut on her shoulder from a splinter in the broken column. Before Shepard ripped open Miranda's suit, she mumbled. "I'm sorry, Miranda. I hope you have another suit."

Miranda rolled her eyes, "Just do it, Shepard!"

Shepard grabbed the suit around the wound and ripped it apart. Miranda took in a sharp breath and then looked down at her shoulder. "Doesn't look too bad."

Shepard smeared some medi-gel on the wound and helped Miranda up. "Dr. Chakwas should set up a triage on the upper deck soon. I'll get you over there."

Miranda stopped her. "I can get there myself and I also want to check in with the Normandy and get their status."

Vasir circled the center of the room in disbelief. Did they just take out the most powerful shadowy figure in the galaxy and leave no trace of him? How were Liara's biotics so strong that they had drawn out the massive power that swallowed the yahg without leaving even a speck of dust behind? The Spectre stared up at the power conduit that was exposed now with a weak flickering of sparks, and the auxiliary power line pulsed faintly behind the main power pipes. The yahg was no more!

"Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat. We had a momentary connection failure. Can you confirm status?"

Liara stood in front of the controls, listening to the chatter on the Shadow Broker's information network, blue lights turned red. The lines were failing and the chaotic chatter intensified. She moved her finger to bring up a communications panel and saw a voice prompt flicker.

"Operative Shora requesting update, are we still online?"

Liara tapped the voice prompt, "This is the Shadow Broker…."

Vasir turned around and watched Liara giving orders while the voice masking software changed her voice into the yahg's. Vasir's eyes widened: No! Liara is the new Shadow Broker? Was she planning this all along?

Shepard walked Miranda to the door, watching her XO climb the ramp to the upper floor. She heard the Shadow Broker's voice and she turned around quickly, her gun already leveled and pointing at the other side of the large room. But she saw that only Liara stood in front of the control panels. She lowered her gun.

The door on the other side of the room opened, Aethyta and two commandos rushed in with their rifles leveled as well. "What's in Goddess' ass going on here?" Aethyta signaled her people to lower their guns. She docks her own rifle and started to walk toward Liara.

Vasir got to Liara first. She took out a syringe that was intended for the yahg and put it next to Liara's neck while holding her by her shoulders. "Nobody moves!" She dragged Liara back away from everyone. Both Shepard and Aethyta leveled their weapons again. Vasir moved back another step, "I had prepared this poison for the yahg, and it's so potent that it'd have killed him in an instant. Don't be stupid. I don't want to hurt Liara."

Shepard moved slowly towards them. "Then tell us what you do want."

"I need evidence that I have taken out the Shadow Broker. The yahg told the truth, the salarian councilor did promise me the position and I'm taking it. All I need to do is take Liara with me to the Citadel and she'll tell the Councilor that the old Shadow Broker is dead. Then she can leave and I won't hurt her."

Aethyta breathed the word out. "Over my dead body!"

Liara was startled by Vasir's move, everything had happened so fast, her adrenaline had dictated her action when she took down the power grid and when she took over the command of the agents. Feeling the needle jabbing at her skin, Liara tried to calm herself down and reason with the Spectre. "Vasir, I will go with you and tell them that you helped take down the Shadow Broker. Just put the poison down, I promise I will help you."

Vasir's hand loosened the pressure a bit. "Liara, the last thing I want now is to hurt you. But I can't take the risk of Shepard taking credit for what I did. They have to agree to let me take you or I'll have no choice but to hurt you."

Shepard moved still closer. "Vasir, Liara isn't going anywhere with you. I give you my word that I'll not claim my part in this to anyone. I swear on my honor as a fellow Spectre."

Vasir had seen way too many betrayals to believe Shepard's words. A prize of this magnitude was too great for anyone to pass up, and whom would the Council choose as the victor for such an accomplishment? An underachieving Spectre or the Savior of the Citadel? The answer was clear as day. No, she'd need leverage and she saw none stronger than the asari in her grasp. "I'll not give you another warning. Next move anybody makes, she gets a taste of this. I won't kill her but she would not survive long after we meet the Councilor." She jabbed the needle into Liara's neck to make her point. Liara let out a cry.

"Listen to me, Vasir!" Liara tried to keep her breathing even. "Let me go. I will persuade them to help you. We can resolve this peacefully. I know you don't want to hurt me. And I don't want you to get hurt either. We'll one day laugh at this when we have tea together. They'll listen to me. Just let go of me."

Liara could once again feel Vasir's grip relax a little. She put up her hands to stop both Shepard and Aethyta advancing. She sensed no ire or menace from the hostage taker. She knew she could persuade Vasir to end her action without bloodshed.

Vasir moved back one more step and relaxed a little more when she saw neither Aethyta nor Shepard made a move to follow them. But her hand still held the needle firmly. "Here's how it'll go!" She shouted as she moved toward the door behind her that led to the elevator. "We're taking Liara's ship and we're heading to the Citadel. If anyone follows us, I will not hesitate to call in reinforcements and …" She hit the button for the elevator.

Before she could finish her last sentence, a cloaked figure suddenly appeared behind them. Only two short blades were visible and they landed precisely at their targets, one on Vasir's arm that cut off the nerve that controlled her hand and another in her neck cutting open the major artery linked directly to her heart. As the figure uncloaked, she pulled back her red cape to reveal her matching armor.

"Nightshade, no!" Liara cried out. She quickly pulled out the unused syringe and turned around to see Vasir fall onto the floor, holding her neck wound. "Vasir!" Liara dropped down on the floor and put her own hands on the wound, but the blood wouldn't stop. Liara looked up at Shepard, "Get help, quickly!"

Vasir's breaths were hitched as she tried to sit up against the bulkhead, but her legs didn't have the strength to push her body. Liara wrapped one arm around Vasir's shoulders and pulled her to lean against the wall and her other hand was still pressing on the neck wound. "Hang on, Vasir! Shepard's getting help." She turned around to Nightshade, "There's a medical box I saw in that corner. Please get it quickly." Nightshade took off running to get the box.

"Liara, would you forgive me?" Vasir's voice hiccupped as she tried to catch her breath. "Would you…like to go see an opera with me…one day?" Vasir's hand that was holding her own neck wound fell and she started to slide to one side.

Liara moved to support her. Nightshade came back with a medical kit, and they quickly opened a medi-gel pack and squeezed it all onto the neck wound, and Liara took a thick pack of bandage and covered the wound with pressure. Vasir's eyes were losing focus as her head tipped back a little. Liara gripped her tighter, "Stay with me, Vasir! We will go see an opera together one day, but you need to stay with me. Do not give up!"

Shepard came back with Dr. Chakwas in tow and Miranda followed behind them with an IV bag in her uninjured hand. As they made their way across the room, they heard Liara's broken voice. "Vasir! Vasir!" But the asari Spectre didn't respond, her head had dropped into the crook of Liara's elbow and her blue armor was covered completely in purple blood.

Dr. Chakwas checked the asari and she shook her head. "She lost too much blood. She's gone." The doctor and Miranda left to attend to other wounded in the temporary sick bay upstairs.

Liara looked down at Vasir's body and then at her hands where the dead Spectre's blood had started to turn sticky. Shepard put a hand lightly on Liara's back. "Liara, are you okay?"

Nightshade retrieved the syringe from the floor and retracted the needle. She examined it. "This is a very deadly poison." An experienced assassin knew her trade and despite the reaction from Liara to Vasir's death, the assassin knew she did what she had to. Her strikes had to be deadly, leaving no chance for the one who held poison this potent to push a drop into Liara, even reflexively. Now that she got Feron back, she would not take a chance on losing Liara! "I'm sorry, Liara. I came to check on the power situation and heard shouting. So I went into the vents and cloaked. She was threatening your life. What was I supposed to do?"

Aethyta stood behind them, "You did exactly what you're supposed to. Protect a friend."

Liara knelt down next to Vasir's body and she put a hand lightly on top of the dead asari's head. "I forgive you, Vasir. May you find peace in the embrace of the goddess." It was easy to confer forgiveness when she herself sought desperately for redemption. To mourn a part of herself that she could no longer hold onto, and to seek forgiveness for all the deaths she'd caused and to forgive herself. She felt the walls she had built crumbling and her old self emerging.

Liara stood up and looked straight at Shepard. "We need to talk."

* * *

**A/N:** Had to stop there, couldn't put everything in, it's already gotten too long.


	17. Chapter 17 The Prodigal

**Second Life**

**Chapter Seventeen – The Prodigal**

"Feron!" Liara saw the drell in bed, unconscious with several tubes connected to the monitors Dr. Chakwas had set up in the large temporary sick bay, and an oxygen mask covered half of his face. Liara's heart sunk a notch, she hadn't seen Feron since that day they fought with Tazzik after they went through the Omega 2 relay and it seemed like a lifetime ago. She remembered his deep yet echoing voice when Feron shouted at her, "Liara, go! Now!" Two years in the cage, in that chair, only electric currents as his consistent companion, yet he survived. "Goddess!" Liara whispered and let out small shuddering breath.

_It is finally over!_ Liara had learned many things in these past two years and one thing had never strayed far from her mind. Actions caused effects in the world, effects for which payments must be made. She had plotted the death of the Shadow Broker, she plotted how to kill him, to be exact, and she succeeded spectacularly. She promised herself his death would be something to see, and it was; she promised his remains would fit in a coffee cup when she was done with him, she exceeded, he left nothing, no need even for a coffee cup. But somehow, his death didn't bring the satisfaction and joy Liara had expected to experience. The only thing she could think about right now was that they got Feron back for Nightshade and she got Shepard back.

Liara sighed deeply as she slumped her shoulders; one hand on Feron's arm and her tears fell on the sheet that covered the drell. Fate had turned a page in her book, all of her wishes had become reality, Liara felt both relieved and lost. _What am I to do now?_ An old habit came back and settled in quickly, when she was lost she always looked to Shepard for direction. Liara turned around and looked for Shepard who had followed her into the infirmary, but the human was no longer there.

Shepard watched Dr. Chakwas give Liara a cleaning pad to get rid of Vasir's blood on her hands. The asari said she wanted to talk, so Shepard suggested coming to the temporary med bay to get her cleaned up first. Aethyta and Nightshade had offered to take Vasir's body to where a temporary morgue was set up on the Big Whale, and Shepard accepted the offer gratefully. As she followed Liara into the med bay and watched her rushing to Feron's side, Shepard stopped by the door.

The drell looked fragile tangled in clear medical tubes and wires, and Liara's inner turmoil was on display clearly through her face. Shepard felt her heart needled by this sight. It wasn't clear to her how the drell had saved Liara's life, but from what Matriarch Aethyta had told her about the Observer, it wasn't hard for Shepard to imagine the danger and fear Liara had lived through these past two years. She should feel happy for her and find comfort knowing that someone protected her beloved when she wasn't there. But as hard as she searched for that happiness and comfort, she couldn't find them. Only more needling. "Shit!"

Liara's gentle hand on the drell's arm and her tears shed on the bed sheet didn't escape Shepard, and she felt a sudden tightness in her throat. Ever since she woke up on that operating table, the thought of Liara had been the one thing Shepard could turn to for support. Every waking hour when she wasn't working on her missions, every sleepless night, and when Ashley gave her a kick in the pants calling her names, or every time she wanted to hit the call button to get in touch with her mother but chickened out, the thought of having Liara back in her life kept her going. If only she could have the asari at her side, she could do anything. She'd talk to her mother, she'd try to work things out with Ash and she'd kill the goddamn Collectors. She'd be the old Shepard again, fearless and with a purpose. If someone as pure as Liara would believe in her, what doubts would the rest of them have?

Watching Liara standing by the drell for what seemed like an eternity and forgetting the one who stood behind her, Shepard desperately wished that the asari would spare her a look. If only she saw how helpless Shepard felt without her, she'd take pity on the soldier. She might ask how she felt and Shepard would take her heart out and show the asari exactly how she felt. But Liara stood by the drell, steadfast, not looking back, not even looking up at Dr. Chakwas' worried face. Even the good doctor saw how miserable Shepard looked. The soldier finally realized now that she had helped Liara get the drell back, she might have lost her forever. Shepard closed her eyes and focused her senses on her own body. Her body felt no pain, only a little fatigued. She wished her hip pain or her headache would return to distract her from how she felt when she watched the one she loved caring for another. What would she do now?

Quietly Shepard left the med bay and walked down the ramp, she needed something to distract her. Miranda came out of the elevator and caught up with her. "Shepard, a word?"

Miranda had changed into a clean suit in deep navy blue with yellow trim, shinier than her ruined suit. Her injured arm was no longer in the sling and there was no sign of the woman ever being in a bloody battle, her face still looked perfect and her hair neat. The only give-away when Shepard looked closely was that her alabaster skin looked even paler.

"Miranda, it's okay to show some grime and blood after a tough battle, you know? This ain't a beauty contest."

"I don't follow." Neither amusement nor annoyance.

"Never mind. What's the situation?"

"The Illusive Man wants to have a word with you and I need to talk to you after you're done with him." Miranda led Shepard to the elevator that would take them straight to the shuttle bay.

Shepard suddenly realized the implications of the changing power of the Shadow Broker network and what would happen if the Illusive Man got the wind of this. This was a different Normandy and a different crew, she had to remember that loyalties weren't guaranteed like with the SR-1 crew and her actions were always monitored. "You haven't told the Illusive Man about this op, have you?" Shepard's voice was cautiously hopeful.

"You may think that I like to gossip about office politics with my boss, but the truth is I don't submit my report to him lightly. I have to have a full grasp of the situation when we complete a mission before I give him my full report and evaluation. As far as he knows right now, we're still docked on Illium."

"So are you going to tell him?" Shepard pressed.

"I haven't decided yet."

The Illusive Man was indeed in the dark about the operation Hagalaz. Either that or both he and Miranda were exceptional liars which wouldn't surprise Shepard. The smoking man congratulated Shepard for her success on Horizon: they stopped the Collectors from taking the entire colony and took quite a few of them down including a Praetorian. But what Illusive Man didn't tell Shepard was the operation after the Normandy left Horizon. He had sent in a team to retrieve the remains of the Collector forces and salvaged quite a lot of tech and specimens for an important asset who would work under a water treatment plant and research the effects of Reaper indoctrination. The tech and the dead bodies gave Cerberus more glimpses of the Reapers than the technology they had salvaged from Sovereign. The leader of Cerberus knew that his enormous investment on discovering, possessing and controlling Reaper technologies had just raked in its first fruit. Putting money on Shepard was the right move, nothing and nobody else would have been the same.

When the Illusive Man ended the call with Shepard, he told the voice controlled environmental system to roll up the shutters. The giant red dying star came in the view. He dragged on his cigarette while going over the call he had exchanged a few days ago with the asset he selected to lead the project on Horizon.

"I wondered how long it'd take you to call me back." Henry Lawson's voice had been impatient. "Since you failed to escort the indoctrination tanks I paid for, I thought you'd permanently removed yourself as the head of Cerberus and stopped pretending you could be the savior of humanity."

"Henry, we're too old of friends to insult each other, don't you think?" The Illusive Man's voice was cool. "That was a minor set back at best, having tanks without the right specimen would be frivolous in any stretch. I have something far better to offer you for your research. All I'm asking is that you share the results with me so that we can implement the solution at a greater scale, and in turn save humanity."

Henry Lawson's eyes lit up. "You finally captured the group in the Petra Nebula? There's a whole cantonment of soldiers stationed there. I want them! I need them! I still have 5 indoctrination tanks that are still working."

"Taking actions against the Alliance troops takes plotting so that it won't trace back to Cerberus." The Illusive Man found Henry amusingly predictable and decided to let him stew for a while before giving him the good news.

"When you're busy plotting your little scheme, my tanks are draining power! I need the specimen now! The research is too important to worry about political ramifications when all our lives are at stake, when the survival of humanity is at stake! Once we found a way to first control the enthralls and then the Reapers, everyone will bow at our feet, and all will be forgiven." Henry was predictably riled up.

"That may be true, but why bother with humans when you can test your theory on something physical and mental stronger?" He waited to get Henry's attention as he dragged on his cigarette, and his eyes narrowed with satisfaction when he saw the scientist actually gaped at him. "I have bodies of the Collectors and some nearly dead husks. I've put them in stasis pods and had them transported to the Horizon facility. You can get there in a few hours and start your research with those specimens. I have arranged transport to move your equipment and tanks there, and if you need any additional equipment, you know what to do."

"I'll do it on one condition." Henry also knew his old partner well and he knew when he'd got him on hook. "I want Oriana back, and you're going to find her for me."

The Illusive Man remained silent for a few moments. "I actually know exactly where she is." This would eventually sacrifice Miranda as an asset but her purpose of resurrecting Shepard had been fulfilled, the father was much more useful than the daughter going forward. A deal was easily struck and loyalty quickly switched.

"You just happened to know her location?" Henry's voice was angry. "Do you know how long I've been trying to find her?"

"We may have parted ways as partners, Henry, but I didn't stop caring about your concerns. And I know before you started on your new research of the Reaper indoctrination, Oriana was your main objective." The Illusive Man said unhurriedly, lies always sounded more truthful when told with conviction that even its speaker could almost believe. "But why do you still want to bother with genetic recreation when you'll go down in history as the one who saved humanity from the Reapers?"

"After I've saved humanity, I'll need an army of daughters to run my dynasty, won't I? Do you not consider more than two steps ahead of you?"

"Fair enough. But why only daughters?" The Illusive Man was quite certain he was talking to a madman.

"Daughters are easier to control than sons."

The Illusive Man almost choked on his whiskey. _If only he had worked with Miranda! _"Wouldn't you want to control the dynasty yourself?"

"Do you expect me to command my own mind?"

The Illusive Man sat back into his chair, staring at the man across the quantum waves, assessing and evaluating. "You do know that you're mad."

"That may be true, but a brilliant man such as myself couldn't bother with one's sanity, could he? He has much more important things to worry about, as do you, I'm sure." Henry waved his hand quickly as though that would dismiss any stray thoughts from the smoking man and bring him back to the issue at hand. "Do we have a deal or not?"

"We have a deal." The Illusive Man let out a thick exhale of smoke.

"Good! I think I've got the right man to do the job too. I'll send you the dossier of Niket."

The Illusive man extinguished his cigarette as he finished replaying the call with Henry Lawson and he only turned his head slightly when he heard footsteps coming closer behind him. "You know this will eventually cost us Miranda Lawson?"

To the Illusive Man all alliances were temporary and all loyalties were currency. He could bring them about like lighting a cigarette and extinguish them just as easily. He had the credits and the mind to do it. He agreed with Henry that they both had brilliant minds, but his was without the madness that plagued Henry's, thank god, or one day they'd have to struggle for power. Henry's madness would be his undoing, but not before he produced the results for this top-secret research. And as for Miranda, a sacrifice had to be made for the greater good. She of all people would understand the need for the survival of humanity.

"The wheels have already been set in motion. Henry's man should have the girl by now and be on his way back to deliver her to her father. I've made arrangements to guarantee the result. We have Niket's kid, and if he blows cover, his kid dies. So Miranda will know nothing." The Illusive Man instructed without looking at the woman standing behind him. "And Jana, join Henry Lawson on Horizon and assist him in his research and keep him in line."

xxxxxxxxxxx

Liara followed Shepard to the Normandy after she found out that the Commander had left the Big Whale. Nightshade had come back to the temporary sick bay on the Shadow Broker's ship and told Liara that she saw Miranda and Shepard leaving in a shuttle. Watching Nightshade sitting down in a chair next to Feron's bed and holding his hand in hers, Liara felt a pang of panic. Shepard left without telling her. What if she left without even saying goodbye, without giving her a chance to explain what she had done in the past two years, and without letting her correct the one mistake she had regretted the most? She had to tell Shepard that she had loved her before her death and loved her still after she came back, especially after she came back. If Shepard had given her life to protect Liara, she at least deserved to know how much the person she saved loved her. Liara suddenly realized the solution lay not in waiting for Shepard to get close to her again but in her own pursuit of the Commander.

When EDI told her that Shepard was talking with Miranda in the XO's office, Liara struck a conversation with Rupert Gardner while waiting. "So Chef, I wondered if you would share some information with me about the Commander."

Gardner wiped his hand first before shaking Liara's. "Dr. T'Soni, right? What can I do you for?"

"I thought you might know what the Commander liked for her meals. I was thinking about cooking her an Earth dish for dinner." Liara knew Shepard liked pizza and grilled chicken, but that was another Shepard. This was new Shepard and she had to start anew.

"Well, she seems pretty into my scrambled eggs, cookies and lasagna." Gardner motioned for Liara to sit by the counter. "I guess for dinner, lasagna would be a good choice."

Liara sat down and paid her full attention to the Chef. "How would I go about making this lasagna dish?"

"Well, you want the quickie way or the tasty way?" Gardner gave the asari a gruff smile when he saw her confused expression, "Good lasagna takes patience and experience to make. Or you can just get the nasty ones straight out of the can. Even cats and dogs hate canned lasagna."

"Oh, no. I wish to make the tasty one and I have plenty of patience." Liara assured the Chef.

"Good!" Liara's persistence pleased Gardner. He tapped on his omni-tool to type out the instructions for his apprentice and then he bent down and pulled out a jar behind the counter. "You can't make good lasagna without good sauce. This is my top secret red sauce. I'll take a case of them to your big ship later. You use this, and I guarantee she'll love your lasagna!"

Liara examined the sauce in Gardner's hand and then gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you, Mess Sergeant! I do appreciate this. I would not want to make bad lasagna for the Commander."

Shepard came out of Miranda's office at that moment and she was surprised to see Liara onboard. "Liara, what are you doing here?"

The asari stood up and joined the Commander. "I wanted to talk with you Shepard."

Liara's presence wrenched at her temporary escape, surely helping Miranda's sister was better than having your ex-lover telling you how much she loved another. Even though she knew what Liara would say to her, hearing the words spoken out loud would surely be as final as death. Well, maybe not as final as Shepard's death, but still. Let's enjoy a bit of peace and quiet in delicious denial for just a bit longer.

"I can't talk right now. I'm sorry, Liara. Miranda's sister needs our help and it's urgent. But I'm leaving Dr. Chakwas and Professor Solus here to take care of Feron and the wounded, and I'll leave Garrus with you in case you need any help. And the commandos are still restoring the power on the ship. So you're in good hands." Shepard fired her words like canons in hopes of blocking what Liara had to say, and she walked the asari into the elevator to the shuttle bay.

"When will you be back?" Liara asked eagerly.

"Hopefully in a couple of days." Shepard silently cursed the slow elevator.

"Will you be careful?" The asari let her concern show through her voice.

"I'll bring Jacob with us. With two powerful biotics and one of them as an ex-special ops soldier, I probably won't get to fire my gun." Shepard gave the asari a faint smile.

They finally reached the shuttle bay. Shepard opened the shuttle door for the asari. Liara stepped in but lingered for a moment. Before Shepard stepped away from the shuttle, Liara blurted. "Shepard, I wanted to tell you that it was I who gave your body to Cerberus." And with that, the asari closed the shuttle door and disappeared from Shepard's view.

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After meeting with Lanteia on Illium, Miranda was in a bad mood. Niket had sent her an encrypted message through their only secure channel, nothing detailed only come quickly, Oriana was about to be discovered. But according to Lanteia, Niket was the one who was actually in charge of the transfer.

"Miranda is in a bad mood." Jacob whispered into Shepard's ears.

Miranda heard him as they walked into the elevator. "I'm not in a bad mood, I'm in a hurry."

Jacob wasn't whispering anymore. "Yes, you are. You were like this when we were in Nemean Abyss when Illo Nazario pissed you off, and I had to mediate between the two of you to get his cooperation."

"I did say I was sorry on Arcturian Jade with a very expensive bottle of champagne, didn't I?" Miranda gave Jacob a quick glance. She was in a bad mood, Oriana had been safely hidden for all these years, how did her father find her sister now? Why would Niket betray her after so long?

The elevator started its slow journey. Sensing a tense moment between two old colleagues, Shepard commented. "Nice music." An unremarkable tune played through the built-in speaker in the corner on the celling.

"This is not music, Nielsen's Fifth is music, this is butchering our auditory senses!" Miranda snorted.

Jacob hid a mischievous smile. "I think it's nice and it's relaxing."

Miranda quickly took out her pistol and shot the speaker. The music stopped. Shepard looked at Jacob who shrugged. "Note to self, never piss off Miranda." Shepard murmured.

Miranda was already very pissed off when they arrived at the cargo terminal. She barely waited for the leaders of Eclipse to make his threat and then let her biotic explosions take out half of the mercs who were supposed to ambush them. By the time they got to Dock 94, Miranda had single handedly killed or scared away most of the mercs who blocked their path. Shepard winced when Enyala, the Eclipse Captain, commented on Miranda's choice of clothing. With a strong biotic lift and a forceful push, Miranda sent the Eclipse merc leader flying; and for the ultimate satisfaction, she lifted a group of heavy crates with her biotics and buried the merc, smashing her and her shotgun into pieces.

Shepard had never seen Miranda using this biotic combo before, but she noticed the Cerberus operative never lost her form in the fight, a menacing force within precise control. "Note to the enemy, never make fun of Miranda's clothes."

"Miri." A man came out from behind a stack of crates.

"Niket! When Lanteia told me you were involved, I didn't believe it." Miranda's voice turned cold and sharp as she leveled her pistol and aimed at the man. "Say someone else did it, someone who has gone where I cannot follow."

"I did it, Miri! I have no choice. But I did warn you!" Niket put his hands. "If you hurry, you can still save her."

"You were the only one I trusted, Niket. You were my only friend. How could you do this?"

"I didn't tell them, Miri. Your father found out from someone else and I can't tell you who. They have my daughter. They'll kill her if I talk. Please, Miri! Please forgive me and go save Oriana."

Shepard pulled on Miranda's arm that was holding the gun. "Come on, we have to hurry."

"I don't ever want to see you again!" Miranda lowered her gun.

"You won't! I'm going into hiding with my daughter after this." Niket let out a sigh of relief.

Thanks to Shepard's clear thinking and Miranda's quick work, they did get to Oriana before Henry Lawson's men. From a distance, Oriana looked a little taller than her sister. Aside from the length of their hair, two sisters looked almost identical. Shepard blocked the path to the elevator. "You need to go and talk to her." She crossed her arms in front of her.

"No, I don't. She's safe and she's with her family. That's all I care about." Miranda tried to walk around Shepard.

Shepard blocked her again. "That's not all she cares about. Her family just got uprooted and she has to go to a new place now, leaving her friends. Would it be so bad if she knew she had a big sister who looked out for her?"

Using Oriana's needs was an effective tactic, it persuaded Miranda to introduce herself.

Oriana raised her arms to hug Miranda after the initial shock of knowing she had a sister and how dangerous their biological father was. Miranda looked at her own hand she had extended it for a handshake, she felt awkward and silently cursed Shepard for making her do this. Miranda lowered her hand and stared at Oriana's face, she looked so familiar as though Miranda was looking at herself in the mirror when she was younger.

"I have a sister." Oriana finally voiced her thoughts, and Miranda's intense stare only encouraged her. The young woman wrapped her arms around Miranda's shoulders and hugged her tightly. The exuberant squeeze put pressure on Miranda's wounded shoulder; she took in a sharp breath and winced. Oriana jumped back immediately with horror in her eyes. "I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" Watching Miranda holding her left shoulder with her right hand, Oriana exclaimed. "You have an injured shoulder!"

"No, I'm fine." Miranda answered quickly.

"You're lying. The index finger on your left hand twitches a little when you tell a lie. I saw it because I do the same thing." Miranda looked down at her left hand.

Oriana didn't wait for her sister to reply, "Wait here." She ran back to where her parents stood and had a quick word with her father. He opened a bag and handed his daughter a small pack. Oriana rushed back to Miranda and linked her arm with Miranda's uninjured one and walked her to the bathroom.

The music that annoyed Miranda in the elevator earlier was blasting in the bathroom. Miranda groaned, "That music!"

Oriana snorted, "That's not music, Nielsen's Fifth is music, that is an insult to music!" Miranda sat in a chair in the waiting area staring at her sister with her mouth open.

"My father is a doctor." Oriana carefully opened the zipper on Miranda's suit to expose her shoulder wound, unaware of how her last comment had shocked her sister. One of the stitches had been ripped and the raw flesh was exposed. "He hopes that I will follow his footsteps and become a doctor." The young woman took out small scissors and cut off the ripped stitch and dabbed some antiseptic on the wound. "But I think my mother wants me to be a teacher. She said I'm very good with kids."

Watching the skilled hands putting a new stitch on the wound, Miranda felt pride she'd never felt before. "Do you feel that you have to please one of them?"

"No. I'm sure they'll be happy with whatever I decide to do. But there's still so much to learn. I'm going to study for a couple of more years, then decide."

"You like kids?"

"I love them! I hope one day I'll have a dozen kids of my own." She laughed, her voice melodic to Miranda's ears.

"I hope you'll get your wish." Miranda zipped up her suit after Oriana finished her impromptu treatment. "And remember, no matter what happens, I'll always protect you and keep you safe. That's a promise."

"The same goes for your, Miranda. I'm glad you introduced yourself, at least I have my parents, if you run into trouble, I'll be there for you. I'm a worrier and seeing you're doing dangerous work with Commander Shepard, I'm sure I'll worry about you. So you'd better keep in touch with me, or you'll worry me sick." Oriana was busy packing up the medial pack and cleaning her hands.

The idle chatter seemed to be a natural thing for Oriana, but Miranda watched this stranger telling her life's story as though they'd known each other all their lives. Time and distance could not withstand the bond of blood and DNA. "Miri," Miranda suddenly felt the need to offer more than just her protection. "My friends… my friend called me Miri."

"Miri," Oriana let the word hang in the air for a bit and she smiled at her sister. "If you ever get time off, you can come and visit me. We can go see a symphony together and I'm sure my mother will cook something really nice for you. She's the best cook in the galaxy and I'm sure she'd love to have another daughter to cook for!"

Miranda's eyes glistened with tears. She had given Oriana what she always wanted and never had, a mother, a loving mother at that. She had wanted nothing in return for saving her sister, but here she was, her little sister offering to share the very thing so unobtainable that Miranda had never dreamed to have. As she pulled Oriana into a tight embrace, Miranda told herself she had to remember to thank Shepard for making her do this.

As though the Commander knew what Miranda was thinking, when she got back onboard the Normandy, Miranda found Shepard waiting outside her quarters with a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy and two glasses.

"I bought Dr. Chakwas a case of this stuff. Since she isn't onboard, I borrowed a bottle." Shepard put the glasses on Miranda's desk and poured the brandy. "I think you might need some after today."

Miranda accepted the drink and sat in the lounge chair. "I wanted to thank you for your help, Shepard. Without you, we wouldn't have gotten to Oriana in time." She took a sip, "I know this isn't a part of our mission and I find it rather uncomfortable to have asked you to come with me, but I'm glad I did."

"It was your sister, of course it was a part of our mission." Shepard leaned against Miranda's desk. "Aren't we out here trying to save people's lives?"

"We're out here to fight the Collectors. That's our main and only goal." Shepard knew the strong mind behind Miranda's words hid strong preconceptions.

"Our minds race faster than our hearts. We jump into action without thinking about the consequences. We look at our goals and we get into fights. Do we actually stop and think about why we fight and why we kill anymore? Tell me, if we save a colony but you lose your sister because you weren't there for her, would it be worth it for you to go to that mission instead of saving your sister?"

"But it didn't play out that way, I didn't have to make a choice."

Shepard remained silent but didn't move her eyes from Miranda.

"No, I would have gone after my sister if I had to choose." The Australian lowered her head. "God! I'm turning into my father. Always thinking about objectives, missions and goals."

Shepard refilled their glasses. "Miranda, the way you looked at your sister on the docks today, you're definitely not your father."

Miranda leaned back in her chair and sipped her drink for a while. "I have no one left in this galaxy, but now I have someone who knows who I am to her, who cares about me the way no other people do. I've always been the one responsible, but it's comforting to know if I ever run into trouble, someone would feel responsible for me, someone would come running to my aid not because I asked them to, but they feel the need to do it." Seeing a smile spreading on Shepard's face, Miranda straightened her back. "But we have an important mission, Shepard. I don't need distractions, I don't want to have think about Oriana when I'm in the middle of a fight."

Shepard shook her head at the thought of someone who'd never been in a war. "Oh, you'll think about her and you'll be thankful for it. Take it from someone who's been through this a few times before, no matter how important a mission is, when you're caught between life and death, when you're cold, hungry, tired and miserable on the battlefield, when you only wish to just make it back alive and you'd kill a platoon of enemies all by yourself just to just get to a warm bed and a hot shower, you'll think of her. You'll remember that you're here so that she can chat with the boy she fancies in the safety of her home, you'll remember that you're here in the cold mud and bleeding so that she would never experience what you're going through. When you're too tired to make that last mile to victory, her face would be the thing that gets you through the day."

Miranda studied Shepard's face as the veteran sharing the real experience of war, "Whose face got you through the battle with Saren and Sovereign?"

Shepard suspected Miranda knew the answer. She lowered her head and stared at the drink. She suddenly realized that she might no longer have the right to think of that face this time around, when she finally faced the Collectors. That very thing had fortified her through the last battle was now threatening to move away from her and she was powerless to stop it.

_Am I still fit to lead this mission? When I need to push myself on that last mile, would my mind be blank and falter? _ Shepard found herself lost without answers to these questions. She looked up at Miranda, and the Australian seemed to understand her.

"Talk to her, Shepard. She loved you deeply, that much was very clear when I saw her on the Lazarus Station. She deserves a chance and so do you."

* * *

**A/N:** If you're wondering what the lasagna reference is about, check out Garfield Effect: Galaxy Adventure by ShakespeareHemmingway. And happy holidays, everyone!


	18. Chapter 18 Dessert

**Second Life**

**Chapter Eighteen – Dessert**

The shuttle dropped Shepard off on the Big Whale and took off again. The shuttle bay on the Shadow Broker's ship was enormous but it already housed two shuttles from the Normandy and a whole slew of them from the Blue Sabre. Liara's unnamed ship took half of the hanger. Shepard walked to the exit of the shuttle bay in full armor. She had suited up, a force of habit before leaving the ship on a mission, or maybe her subconscious played a trick when her conscious mind was elsewhere. Better not tell Miranda, who had readily pointed out why she slept with EDI's core instead of in her comfortable bed in the Loft. Definitely keep this from Kelly, who was ever ready with her 20 questions of "it's my job to keep your mental state on this side of I-was-dead-then-came-back-alive." By the time Shepard realized what she was wearing she was too embarrassed to go back up in the slow elevator to change. So she walked into the shuttle in full heavy armor under Jacob's watchful eyes and pretended this was exactly what she had intended to wear.

As soon as she walked through the shuttle bay door, Shepard realized by the ship's time it was already late at night. Her heavy combat boots were making uncomfortably loud clunking noises. She winced and took off her boots and walked in her socks. She went straight to the information center where she thought she'd find Liara. She was ready to talk, Liara said they should talk, Miranda said they should talk, hell, even goddamn Vasir said they should talk. So here she was, ready to talk. But the information center was empty. Blue screens were all online and the main power had been brought back up as the heavy humming sound bounced off the thick bulkheads with a very slight vibration.

Shepard moved slowly through the door and as she passed a console, a blue information drone suddenly jumped up from it. "Greetings, Shadow Broker."

Shepard was startled and then she looked behind her, expecting to see someone that the VI was talking to, but there was no one there. "Is there anything I can provide you with, Shadow Broker?" The drone asked.

"I'm looking for Liara." Shepard said cautiously.

"Dr. T'Soni is in the kitchen two rooms down on your left."

Shepard walked into a large kitchen that smelled like an Italian restaurant. Two immense stovetops framed far side of the wall with an equally sizeable oven sitting between them. Liara hunched over the oven with her hands in two large oven mitts. Her slender yet powerful body looked small among the bulky appliances.

"Hey Liara!" Shepard padded in without making much sound in her socks.

Liara almost dropped the pan in her hands. "Goddess, Shepard! You startled me." She put the pan on a rack and took off the mitts. "For a ship traveling in deadly storms, the Big Whale can get surprisingly quiet."

Liara had changed from her blue and white armor into something soft, something in a fabric that hugged her body yet floated when she moved between the oven and the long dinning table. With Shadow Broker's network back online and two warships keeping watch, the asari took her belongings from her own unnamed ship and made herself more comfortable while cooking for the Commander. She took out a spatula and a plate, and motioned Shepard to sit. "Please come and sit. I've made you a dinner dish called lasagna."

Shepard was still in her full combat gear and the small stool bolted down next to the table didn't offer room for heavy armor. She took off the outer shell and put it by the door. As she walked over to the seat Liara offered, Shepard saw five more pans of food sitting on the long counter. "It looks like you made enough for everyone. Are you planning a feast?" She wondered what the asari had made for Feron. The thought of that made her slightly uncomfortable, she almost felt that she might be intruding by coming back here and at this hour. Shepard tried tidying up her hair before sitting down; if she was intruding, she should at least try and keep decorum.

"Actually those are the failed attempts." The asari cut a piece of food from the pan and put it on the plate. "Mess Sargent Gardner was right when he told me it took experience to make good lasagna. I spent the entire afternoon making this one, just for you." She put the plate in front of Shepard and then handed her a fork and napkin. Without taking any food for herself, Liara tipped her toes to slide onto the stool next to the human.

The tone in Liara's voice when she said "just for you" made Shepard look up at the asari. She accepted the fork and napkin without moving her gaze, but when Liara slid her hip onto the stool, the soft fabric parted, revealing a sliver view of blue skin where the dress split, then the asari readjusted the fabric, and the view of blue was gone. The simple movement reminded Shepard their last vacation on Earth, near Vancouver. In the cabin, the asari had worn a long sleepwear that was almost sheer, and she made the same move when they had dinner at a much smaller and more intimate table in the log cabin, just the two of them with a burning fire in the fireplace and the aroma of sweet wine. The smell and the image from the memory made Shepard drop her fork. The sound of two metal objects knocking brought her mind back, and she realized she'd been staring at the asari with her mouth open, and more specifically, staring at the asari's thigh that the soft fabric draped over. She had put a forkful of lasagna in her mouth before the asari sat down, and she swallowed the food without too much chewing and then forced herself to focus her attention solely on the food in front of her.

Liara sat on the stool and watched Shepard first gaping down at her and then hungrily shoving food into her mouth, devouring the dish she had spent all afternoon perfecting. A warm smile spread on her face. The sight of the soldier enjoying her food brought back the memory of their last vacation in the cabin. Shepard had gone out for a morning run and when she came back, Liara put a plate full of breakfast in front of her and the soldier was eating just greedily as she was now. When she almost choked on the egg from breakfast, Liara put a hand on the soldier's arm while giving her a cup of coffee. "Slow down, Shepard. This is not a competition."

Liara poured some water into a cup and put another lasagna piece on Shepard's plate. She handed the human the water and put a hand on her arm. "Slow down, Shepard. This is not a competition." Shepard stopped chewing and stared at the asari. The familiar scent of her old lover brought back the familiar feeling that she had been trying hard to push to the background. Looking at the beautiful face and warm eyes of the asari, Shepard stood up.

"I can't do this anymore." Shepard walked over to the bulkhead where she stored her armor and boots, and picked up the pieces from the floor. This was a mistake. She thought if she could only rationalize it and tell the asari "I saved your life, you helped save mine, we're even. You don't owe me anything, you're free to pursue your own happiness", she'd be all right. She thought she could handle this, the same way she swore off chocolate, like those heart-shaped ones she saw on the Citadel, because they reminded her of Liara. Damn Garrus for sending a giant box of them to their hotel while she was recovering from the injuries after the Battle of the Citadel, and the asari had found numerous creative ways to feed her heart shaped pieces. Why should life be such sweet morsels of heaven and only to inexorably take them away after giving you a taste?

Shepard thought she could handle this, but she couldn't. Not with the familiar touch that had melted her, not with the same words spoken once before that delivered tenderness, and certainly not with the same jittery heart she once declared her love for the asari as it felt in her chest now. Shepard still wanted to possess her, her body, her heart and her blue soul. She still wanted the asari all to herself. "This isn't right. You're not the same person anymore." _You have someone else to whisper your promises to, promises of together and forever._

The bulky armor felt unusually heavy in Shepard's arms, but she flexed her leg muscles and straightened her back walking toward the exit. Liara rushed to catch her, "Where are you going?"

Shepard walked toward the temporary med bay hurriedly. "I'm going to check on the wounded and then I'm going back to my ship and go to sleep. It's been long couple of days."

Shepard's words lashed at Liara. _Of course she can see that I am no longer the same person she fell in love with and she wants nothing to do with this me._ But Shepard's face didn't have hatred or disgust, only pain that almost distorted her features. The pain that Liara had seen on Shepard's face before, in that sky ambulance when the soldier's leg would not stop bleeding from the wound sustained in the Battle of the Citadel. Pierce had tried to clamp all the damaged arteries on Shepard's leg, but she couldn't find everything without surgical equipment and the bleeding wasn't stopping. The field medic shouted at the ambulance driver, "Move this fucking thing faster or we will lose her!"

Liara had been holding Shepard's hands and the soldier was fighting to stay awake. When they both heard the medic, Liara's tears renewed and she held onto the soldier's hands even tighter. "Shepard, you promise me you will not leave me!" Shepard's hands were weak and shaking as she tried to hang on to Liara's, her face was pained and the asari knew it wasn't from the leg wound as the medic had took care of the pain with a shot. Try as she might, the soldier didn't have the strength to push her word of promise through her weakened breath. She had used all the strength left in her body to focus her eyes on the asari's teary face, the face she wanted so desperately to touch and to assure her everything would be okay. Liara saw the desperation on Shepard's face, and under the soldier's frowning brows, tears swelled in her eyes and spilled over. She had never seen Shepard cry like this before, and she knew the soldier didn't cry from her own pain but for the pain she had caused her lover. It broke Liara. She moved up to where Shepard was sitting, strapped to the gurney, and put the soldier's head gently into her shoulder and whispered her own promise. "It's alright. I am right here and I will never let you go." The soldier could only shed more tears through her ragged breaths.

Seeing that pain on Shepard's face again, Liara ignored the dull pain she felt in her own stomach and jogged in front of the human and stopped her march. "Shepard, you can hate me, you can berate me, but please talk to me. Do not shut me out. I… I loved you, deeply." For two long years, Liara had planned how to say these words when Shepard came back from her death, to close that chapter of her life and open a new one. This was not the way she had envisioned. Not in such a hurry and certainly not with panic.

"Loved." Hearing the word she had longed to hear before the whole mess with death, Shepard stopped moving. It seemed ironic that when she finally lost the one she loved, she'd hear her say the word she coveted most when they were together. "I loved you too, but it's different now, isn't it?" Shepard didn't want to continue this line of conversation. "Why don't you just leave me alone now that I've helped you with your quest? I'll gather my people and be on my merry way soon, and you won't have to face me again if it's easier for you." Shepard cursed herself for being a coward, as she knew she was the one who refused to face the reality. The asari did save her life and she didn't give up on her while everyone else had called it quits.

Shepard's words didn't contain anger, only coldness. Liara felt shivers coursing through her body. "You hate me that much that you would not want to see me again? Do you hate me because I gave you to Cerberus?" Of course she did. When they came back from the meeting with the Council on the Citadel, when Shepard told her that Cerberus assassin almost sniped her, the soldier had held her tightly in her arms, in their bed on the SR-1, fear in her voice, fear that the asari had never seen from the soldier before, "I don't know what I'd do if I lose you." And she had given her lover to their most hated enemy.

Shepard remained silent. How could she blame the asari for wanting to bring her back? If the role was reversed, she might have done the same. Miranda had described their meeting on the Lazarus Research Station, and the image of Liara escorting her corpse alone was enough to break Shepard down. She couldn't imagine what strength it took the archeologist with barely a few months of fighting experience to chase a dead woman's body all over the galaxy while fighting off Shadow Broker's men, what single-minded devotion that made the asari believe a dead person could come back to life and what madness it was in the asari to have handed her most loved person to her most hated enemy. Shepard felt no hatred, only guilt.

Liara desperately wanted Shepard to say something, but the human didn't utter a word. "I was by myself after you were gone, all alone. After Benezia's death, you were all that I had. I just couldn't let you go. I thought if they could bring you back, at least I could tell you how much I loved you." _And hoped that would be enough._ But judging from Shepard's reaction, it apparently wasn't enough. Tears started to overflow, and Liara turned around and covered her face with her hands.

Liara's tears had always been her undoing as Shepard discovered this a lifetime ago. She could take just about anything from the asari, but not her tears. She put down her armor and pulled the asari's arm. "Hey, don't. Please don't cry. You know that I can't bear it when you cry." Her soft voice was no longer cold and distant. Liara turned around and without hesitation; she buried her face into Shepard's neck and let her tears soak into the soldier's underarmor. She had been losing this past few years after a century of uneventful life, first her mother, then Shepard and in the past two years, on the edge of losing her sanity trying to get Shepard back and to stay alive. But she held on. She held on because she believed when Shepard came back, the soldier would gather her beloved in those strong arms and hold her head safely on her shoulder while she cried, kiss the nape of her neck and whisper words of comfort in soft sighs and a small voice, just like she was doing now. If all the lost were her pilgrimage, this moment would be her destination. The asari stopped crying, tears still fresh on her face, she pulled back and kissed the human on the lips.

Shepard stood still holding the asari, feeling the warmth of her tears seeping through the underarmor. The scent of Liara's neck and breath… she couldn't help but put her lips on the asari's neck. When she was struggling for air amongst the broken pieces of the Normandy, when she clearly saw her own end, it was the memory of this sensation, kissing the asari's skin that accompanied her into the darkness of death. If this were a dream, she didn't want to wake up. When the asari lifted her head and kissed her with luscious warm blue lips, the barrier Shepard had been shakily fortifying threatened to break. She hadn't expected the asari to kiss her and she wasn't prepared for the strong jolt she felt between her legs when her own lips responded to the kiss. The soldier quickly pulled back. "But this still doesn't change the fact that you have someone else now."

"I do?" Liara's heart sunk when Shepard pulled back from their kiss, then she fell into complete confusion. "Who?"

"The drell." Shepard let go of Liara's arms, recreating the distance.

"Feron?" Shepard nodded. Liara palmed her face, "You thought I was in love with Feron?"

"Matriarch Aethyta said you were hell bent on getting him back and killing the Shadow Broker and that was all you ever thought about for the last two years."

Liara shook her head. She took Shepard's hand and led her into the temporary med bay. The room was dimly lit during the night with only pale white floor lighting along the bulkhead. Liara pointed at the bed where Feron slept. The tubes and wires Shepard saw him in a few days ago had disappeared. Nightshade had tucked herself in the drell's arm, and her red cape had shifted into a long and soft night cover that draped over both of their sleeping forms. Liara took the stunned human soldier back out.

"Feron and Nightshade?" Now it was Shepard's turn to feel confused.

"They were engaged before the Shadow Broker captured Feron and they would have bonded if it weren't for me and you. I was hell bent on getting Feron back because I promised Nightshade and because Feron saved both our lives."

"But whose picture was in that frame then?" Shepard couldn't believe what she saw in the med bay or what Liara was telling her.

"What frame?"

"The picture frame you hid from me on Illium in your office when we first saw each other."

"Come." Liara took Shepard's hand again and led her to the bedroom she had taken over from the yahg. The room was long and empty, save for a large bed and two nightstands against the far side wall. Liara had taken her weapons locker from her own ship down to store her Carnifex and a couple of crates from the Big Whale's cargo hold to store her armor. She turned on the lamps on each nightstand and led Shepard to one of them and opened the drawer.

A jewelry-box like case sat in the drawer. When Liara took it out and opened it, Shepard saw the scarf Benezia had left her, Hannah's Alliance medal Shepard had given Liara after Benezia died, and a small disc stored inside the case. Liara took the small disc and put it in Shepard's palm. "This was what I had in the frame. It's the proof that the Shadow Broker was the hunter in my nightmares and the killer who hurt my friends. I let Nightshade torture the Observer to get the location of this ship and kill her when we were done with her. It's also a reminder that I am no longer the person I was. No longer the person… you fell in love with." Her hesitant glance at Shepard's face was brief, then her eyes casted down again at the disc in the soldier's palm.

Shepard closed her hand and held Liara's gaze. "Of course you are! You're the purest, bravest and most kind person I know!"

"Not anymore, Shepard." Liara sat down on the bed. "I let people get killed and I have killed people myself to get your body back, I told myself I did this for you and for the survival of the galaxy. But I really did it for myself. I couldn't let you go."

"Liara, you did what you had to." Shepard knelt down in front of the asari.

"No, I made a choice to kill and to work with assassins and let myself do things I'd never had thought I'd do. I've let others be tortured and I've sent them into traps knowing they'd die. How could you even look at me and still think I'm the same person you fell in love with?" Liara lowered her head again, not even daring to spare a sheepish look, too afraid what she'd see in Shepard's eyes.

Shepard took her shoulders and lowered her head trying to get Liara's attention. "Hey, hey! Look at me, Liara! If you want to blame someone, blame me, okay? I was the one who died on you. I was the one who caused all the hardship for you. You were trying to save the person you loved. Nobody can blame you for that." She shook the asari's shoulders and said it again, "If you have to blame someone, blame me."

Liara looked up at the soldier and felt her eyes once again fill with hot tears. Shepard pulled the asari into her arms and wrapped her tightly in an embrace, her own tears falling. "I don't care, okay? I don't care that you turned my body to Cerberus. I don't care who you think you've turned into. All I care about is that you're here with me. I'm looking at your beautiful face again, and it was you who gave me me this chance. I'm here right in front of you and you're here with me, that's all I care about. I have never loved anyone the way I love you now."

Liara could feel the wetness of Shepard's tears as they fell on her dress and she pulled the soldier into bed with her. The immediate urge to feel the human's lips and skin pressed against her senses. Liara stopped Shepard's words by putting her lips against the human's and she felt a stream of warmth through the back of her neck when the human moaned softly, just like the first time they kissed on old Normandy. That time too Liara sought the human's lips and got the soft moan and heated cheeks from the human as return. The similarity of the kisses didn't escape the asari and the intoxicating feeling she had, just like that first time, tugged at her, like a gentle and quiet nudge that grew into a force, a force of restoration and a force of healing. Liara moved her hand to unzip Shepard's underarmor.

Shepard's thoughts had been scattered. The realization of Feron and Nightshade, Liara's fear and doubts, but also her own guilt of surviving and baseless jealousy. The soldier would have felt broody if it weren't for the asari's lips firmly pressed against her own and her scattered thoughts suddenly vanished completely. As her stomach tightened and sent out moans of pleasure, she could feel Liara's fingers unzipping her underarmor and her own heartbeat elevating. The hot jolt came back as the asari peeled her clothing off with practiced easy, though Shepard did lend a hand by squirming her arms out of the jump suit while still locking lips with the asari.

Now with nothing but a bra on the human's torso, Liara moved her lips away from Shepard's lips and down toward her neck and then lower. But the sight of scars covering Shepard's upper body gave pause to the asari. She stared at the scars, startled by the pulsing red and her heart broke with the pain her lover must be enduring. Shepard saw the hesitation when the asari stared at her scars, and she instinctively tried to cover her body with clothing that was now bunched up on the bed, but Liara pulled the clothing back down. Shepard held her own shoulders trying to cover her front with her arms. "I'm sorry you had to see that." Her voice had uncertainty.

Liara took Shepard's arms and kissed her hands lightly. "You look magnificent to me." When the asari started kissing the soldier's forearms, she saw an orange colored tattoo on the inside of the soldier's forearm, it resembled two planets linked together. She recognized them as the Rayingri and its twin star.

"I got this the last time I was on the Citadel and it reminds me of you every time I look at it." The soldier said shyly while looking at the tattoo and forgetting about the scars. Liara straightened her body and took off her dress. She gently pushed the soldier down in bed and continued her exploration of the scared body with soft kisses.

Under the hot breaths and soft lips on the sensitive spots around the scars, Shepard felt she was quickly losing control. Though lacking the menacing anger, her scars still pulsed red, heated by Liara's kisses and hands that were now massaging the soldier's breasts. Shepard could feel the red pulsing grow stronger and more heated. She lifted her burning body to touch Liara's, the blue skin felt cool and intoxicating. Shepard's palm felt hot and when she gripped the back of the asari's neck with her burning hand, the asari let out a shuddering whimper and her arm that was holding her body faltered, and she fell on the soldier. Shepard held the asari in her arms and rolled on top of her, her hand still holding the sensitive spot on the asari's neck, feeling the beat quickening. The pulse under her fingers served as a painful reminder of how long they'd been apart and how urgently she had to reclaim the asari's irresistible body.

Like a star map she knew by heart, Shepard remembered every sensitive spot on the asari's body. The time they spent in that hotel had been nothing but exploring and re-exploring as the asari slowly revealing them to the soldier. She started from the back of the asari's crest and then her neck and downward, lingered at each spot yet eager to move on to the next. When her lips left, her hands followed, knowing that each touch coaxed waves of pleasure and every stroke added pressure for release. Shepard didn't want to tease the asari as she had done back on the Citadel in that hotel room, the long separation had done a number on her patience. There would be time for savoring and teasing, but not now. Right now she desperately wanted to be inside her lover and to have her lover within her.

With her hand still between the asari's thighs, Shepard looked up. Liara turned her head from the last gasp that made her arch her back and she looked at the soldier, her eyes already swirling into black, "I can't hold on anymore, I want you now." Her breaths ragged from the effort of stopped herself from losing control. Shepard didn't need more invitation, she whispered with the asari together, "Embrace eternity."

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No one had expected being on the Shadow Broker's ship could be this relaxing. Garrus and Jacob took pleasure in cleaning out the varren's den in the belly of the beast, and Garrus made Liara chuckle when he suggested, "You know, Liara, we can make this space into a roller skating rink."

Joker had discovered a not so small stash of porn vids accumulated over the years by the mercs who guarded the ship, and he earned a scowling comment from EDI when he said, "Hey Commander, can we just forget about the Collectors and stay here watching porn and hanging out with Liara?"

Shepard secured a promise from Miranda that she would not breathe a word of this to the Illusive Man until Liara and company were ready to face any repercussions when the secret was out. Aethyta had also classified the operation so that only the Grand Matriarch and her right hand administrator Jamaya knew about the shifting of power. When everything was put in order, it was time for the Blue Sabre and the Normandy to say goodbye.

In the hanger bay, a crowd gathered in front of Liara's unnamed ship. Shepard walked Aethyta into the hanger. The asari commandos stood in a straight line at attention. "What the hell is this?" Aethyta muttered. Before she uttered another word, Onyx bellowed out an order and the commandos went to parade rest. As Aethyta passed the commandos, she saw a smile on G.G.'s face. At the end of the line, Liara was shifting on her feet, barely containing her excitement. When Shepard walked the Matriarch to the nose of the ship that was covered with a piece of fabric, Liara smiled widely.

"Now that I have full access to every information network in the galaxy, I've finally managed to register my ship. Matriarch Aethyta, would you do me the honors?" Liara pointed at the nose of the ship.

Aethyta looked at Shepard who was also smiling, and then at Liara. "You sure, kid? It's your ship and I'm old but I still remember the tradition. You should be the one who's doing the unveiling." The Matriarch felt warmth forming in her gut, the kid was showing her respect and before she had time to be pissed at herself for hiding the truth from the kid, Liara explained.

"It's actually your ship now. I've registered it under the asari Matriarch Special Task Force you're heading, with the permission from the Grand Matriarch. So technically, this is your ship."

Aethyta's eyes popped, the kid had put herself into the fold. Seeing Aethyta speechless and staring at Liara, Shepard smiled. "Maybe you two can do it together."

Liara gave Shepard a grateful smile and extended her hand. Aethyta took Liara's hand and they walked to the cover together. As they took off the cover, Aethyta gasped and tears started forming in her eyes. Watching the Matriarch stand silently Liara said with a proud voice. "I hope you don't mind but now she feels like home to me."

Aethyta caressed the letters in bold deep blue, "Benezia". The asari commandos clapped behind her, Aethyta fought her damnedest to not let her tears fall. "Shit!"

Liara watched Aethyta. Ever since she had invited the Matriarch to the T'Soni estate to plot the assault on the Shadow Broker's decoy ship, Liara sensed there was some special connection between the Matriarch and her mother. In the evening before the assault, Liara saw the Matriarch visiting the fruit tree in the front lawn and looking up in the evening sky thick with stars. Liara had seen her mother doing the exact same thing often. _Perhaps she knew my mother well, and just maybe she might even know who's my father._

Liara spoke softly behind Aethyta, "I hope this pleases you and I hope that one day I could talk with you about my mother."

"Shit!" Aethyta cursed under her breath again. To hide her emotions that threatened to break out, Aethyta turned to Liara and hugged her tightly. "Thank you, kid! You're a good kid!"

Seryna stood behind Liara and waited for the two asari to have a moment, then she brought over a large case to Liara. Liara put the case in Aethyta's hands. "Matriarch, you have stood by me when we were but strangers and never wavered when I needed your support. Here is a small present that could in no way suffice to say thank you, but I hope you will enjoy it nonetheless."

Aethyta opened the case, an old katana shotgun in pristine condition sat in the case. "My father's favorite hunting shotgun!" She gasped again. Aethyta had only just successfully fought down the tears brought by the name of Liara's ship, she felt new tears forming again. She didn't deserve any of this! She felt she was cheating the kid. She told herself to grow a quad and just tell the kid the truth, and fuck the tears that might follow, but Onyx's bellow startled her, the commandos were marching toward the shuttles, it was time for them to go.

Aethyta took the kid away from the others, "When you've fixed things up here, I'd like to invite you to Tuchanka. We've got a lot of Prothean data that you might be interested in and we need an expert to help us make heads or tails of it. Would you consider it as a personal favor to me?"

Liara answered immediately. "Of course, Matriarch! Once we get the network running smoothly again, Nightshade, Seryna and Feron, when he recovers more, can all help running things here. I will go to Tuchanka with you."

Aethyta smiled widely. "That would make me very happy. And I would like to talk with you about your mother."

In the corner of her eye, Aethyta saw a cloaked figure leaning against a crate behind the crowd. Aethyta walked over and nodded. Nightshade uncloaked. "Sorry, a force of habit. An assassin shouldn't be seen by so many."

Aethyta nodded her understanding and went straight to the point. "You'll take care of the young one for an old asari who's very fond of her, won't you?"

Nightshade bowed her head slightly. "She has my blades, Matriarch."

After saying her goodbye to the Matriarch, Liara joined Shepard who was leaning on the open shuttle. "I have a gift for you as well." Liara took out something from her pocket and put it in Shepard's palm. Shepard looked down and saw her old dog tags.

"Where did you get these?" She brushed her fingers on the burned marks on the tags and remembered the suffocation and pain in that leaky suit. Their time was always too short! She didn't have enough time with the asari when they were on the SR-1, and she didn't have enough time now. They had just found each other, and now she was throwing herself back into the fire. She winced when she remembered what the asari had told her the morning after their first night back together.

"I have an ache within me when I think of you in that stasis pod and those two long years without you. Even now as you stand right before me, that ache still exists, reminding me of the time when you are not here."

Shepard whispered. "Why do you love me when you know you might lose me again?"

"Because I have no choice, Shepard. Do you think I wanted to spent the first couple of weeks crying after you died and thinking where I could find you in the after life so that I could join you? Or get involved with underworld figures and give your body to your enemy? Or watch Feron get captured, Fin 2 get shot and the Matriarch get kidnapped and stabbed? You think if I had choice, I wouldn't want to avoid all that?"

Tears formed in Shepard's eyes, and she didn't make any effort to fight them. The soldier stepped forward and fastened the tags on Liara's neck. "You keep these for me." Watching a smile dancing on the corner of Liara's lips, the soldier quipped. "It doesn't mean you belong to me or anything."

Liara laughed and she looked into Shepard's teary eyes. "I was yours before you came back to me and I am yours now and forever. If you haven't figured that out then you are the dumbest person in the galaxy."

It was Shepard's turn to laugh. Garrus walked over and got ready to board the shuttle. "What's so funny?"

Liara grabbed his arm. "Garrus, would you make sure she doesn't forget to eat or sleep for days on end?"

Garrus patted Liara's hand. "Liara, you leave her to me. I know she doesn't listen to other people's suggestions very well, unless they come from you, but I swear to you that I'll keep a close eye on her for you."

"Would you also make sure she wears her helmet in the battle no matter how much she complains?"

Garrus smiled. "I'll also make sure she doesn't headbutt batarians for no good reason, or face a thresher maw by herself, or drive moving craft of any kind."

"And make sure she catches the shuttle back after each mission and remind her that catching the shuttle isn't a long jump competition."

Shepard put up a hand, stopping Garrus from continuing the conversation. "Would you two stop talking about me like I'm not here?"

Garrus laughed and jumped into the shuttle. Liara put her lips on the Commander's. "I'll join you as soon as we have a handle on the network."

Across the hanger bay, on the shuttle to the Blue Sabre, Onyx asked Fin 2 who was sitting next to her. "Did G.G. tell you she put in a transfer request?"

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks to Renegadebabe for the title of this chapter.


	19. Chapter 19 Assassin and Justicar

**Second Life**

**Chapter Nineteen – Assassin and Justicar**

In the mountains of Elasa on Thessia, the Grand Matriarch and her right hand administrator were walking along the long set of stone steps toward the vista that overlooked valley. Elasa in the winter was a peaceful place, especially under a fresh layer of snow that dressed everything in soft white. Malayne and Jamaya had spent many winter holidays here, away from the busy communications in the office and the steady stream of visitors who wished to have an audience with the Grand Matriarch. During their time here on one of the five tall mountains on Thessia, the two leaders of the asari people could quietly organize their thoughts while reflecting on the past and looking into the future, and enjoy a cup of tea without any interruption.

The stone stair path was wide, built thousands of years ago. In the summer, the green elasa berry trees lined the path, shading the steps with their overreaching branches, life in full force. But in the winter, when the elasa berries had been harvested to make Thessia's famous elasa liquor, the wanderers on these stone steps could enjoy a full view of the sky and see all the way to the vista situated at the top of these steps. Looking up at the stone gazebo, almost a part of the landscape, far in their view, Malayne in her full-length deep purple coat stopped at a small landing to catch her breath.

"These steps seem to grow in number each year." She smiled at her own comment, enjoying the slight burning in her lungs from the cold air. It felt good to breath nature and to watch her warm breaths fog up the cold air. She felt more alive.

Jamaya stood next to her in a long white cape, a quiet smile on her face, she raised an arm to let Malayne put hers on top it, and together they started the next set of stairs. Two hundred years junior of her mentor, Jamaya had always enjoyed this quiet time with her teacher. Unlike Malayne and Benezia who came from powerful families, Jamaya was born in a common household; her father and mother held normal jobs and she studied in a public school though she exceled. She knew she was different and her life would not be that of plebs. She joined Malayne's teaching while she was still a matron, and they had worked and risen together as an unbreakable and unstoppable team. Malayne never had children. First it was her drive to reach the top of asari political power and then her position that kept her from seeking a family and raising children, she simply didn't have the time. And that was why she was quite surprised when Benezia not only bonded with Aethyta but also got pregnant with Liara. In some ways, Malayne had considered Liara as the last scion of sorts as she was the only heir between both hers and T'Soni families that produced leaders for generations. Though that was more symbolic since Malayne only met Liara a few times that she could hardly qualify as one of her guardians but Benezia was adamant about putting her in that position. In actuality, Jamaya was the closest to a daughter that Malayne would have ever dreamed of, taking care of her needs, in tune with her moods and always devoted even blindly at times, as a daughter would with her mother.

"Aethyta's report on Liara was unexpected." The news of Liara taking over the galaxy's most powerful information network didn't surprise Malayne. Somehow she knew that Liara's life would mount to something great, perhaps not the path Benezia had wished for, but the young maiden had the blood of a leader.

"She said Liara would like to turn the Shadow Broker's network into an information hub to gather information on the Reapers and when the time comes, she'll mobilize it to join the fight." Jamaya held the Grand Matriarch's hand, supporting her as they climbed the last set of stairs, snow crushing under their feet.

"The changes are coming. Even though this is extremely good news, power shifting will cause a ripple effect, and we have to be prepared for the repercussions."

Neither Matriarch thought the existence of the Reapers a myth any longer, not with the Collectors kidnapping human population in large numbers and not with every other race jostling for power that would give them an edge. The quarians had sent their people to investigate dark space phenomenon in the geth space, the salarians had been studying Prothean artifacts, the turians were busy building weapons with what they learned from Sovereign's technology and the humans were experimenting with Reaper indoctrination.

"It's our unity that our enemy wants, and we are very much divided at the moment." Malayne had ordered the commerce administration to shut down five of Dantius' factories that produced parts for the Reaper indoctrination tanks that the salarian assembled for Henry Lawson. The scan from the ship that Aethyta and the Pirate Radio Network destroyed showed the manufacturer information clearly. She had also asked Jamaya to start an investigation into Nassana Dantius personally to see what other illegal activities she was involved in. And Nassana Dantius was one of the Matriarch North's top protégés.

"You think we'll hear from Matriarch North about this?" Jamaya knew the answer already, but she wondered out loud.

"Of that I have no doubt." Malayne thought what Benezia used to say about Matriarch North. "With all her wealth, her hunger for power will be her downfall, and we must be prepared not to let that be ours."

Jamaya nodded her agreement. She remembered how Benezia used to harangue Matriarch North in meetings. Malayne had always been gentle with her approach to politics but this step with Dantius was a sign to show how serious the Matriarchy was about the Reaper threat and drawing a hard line between enemy and friendly.

As they reached the gazebo, both Matriarchs took a few moments to catch their breaths and take in the view, politics taking a back seat for the moment. Malayne pointed at the valley, "In the summer, this valley is verdant and the color of the pool below the waterfall would turn green with algae and underwater life."

Jamaya pointed at the flatland beyond the small lake, "And the orchards and vineyards there produce the best elasa spirit." They'd had this same conversation each year. It provided them with the comfort of things unchanged and the closeness of things they shared for so many years. In the summer, the orchards were full of green patches that extended beyond the reach of an eye; and in the fall, farmers and their harvesting robots dotted the landscape. But presently, after the harvest and branches were cleared, the orchards were quietly sleeping under the cover of snow. The giant robots lined the farmhouses, and windmills look like children's toys from distance. With the full view of the valley, they could see where the rocky edge of the lake met the woods that bordered the orchards, the woods where both Jamaya's turian husband and her daughter were buried. He died of old age and she died in a tragic accident.

"We'll visit our family tomorrow." Malayne saw where Jamaya's gaze landed and she too focused on the patch of thick trees. She had enjoyed the expansion of Jamaya's family who spent their winter vacations with her here on Elasa. Jamaya's husband was a reliable military man who loved his family and her daughter had completely stolen Malayne's heart. Malayne had one of the rooms in her winter lodge converted into a nursery when the child was born and then had the nursery converted into a playroom with a metal reinforced walls with energy assimilator where the young asari could practice her newly discovered biotic powers. The child had an ambition to become an asari commando thanks in no small part to the Grand Matriarch's sentinels who loved playing with her and teaching her biotic moves while she was growing up.

When she died in a shuttle accident, the Grand Matriarch took her surrogate daughter to Elasa to mourn. Several times Malayne found Jamaya sitting in the playroom staring at the practice wall marred by dents, symbols of pride in the past and a painful reminder of what they'd lost. Malayne often wondered how such small things could carry so much, both in happiness and in sorrow. Both times when Jamaya lost her family members, Malayne arranged burial here on Elasa and made sure the dead rested peacefully in that thick patch of woods made sweet with the sounds of water and rustling leaves. Then she'd sat next to Jamaya who was crying in bed with a hot cup of tea and gave her a gentle shoulder to cry on. Though that was a long time ago, that kind of wound could never heal.

Two of the eight sentinels guarding the Grand Matriarch stood on the landing just below the last set of stairs in their deep blue armor, and two more were at the bottom of the climb. Four more guarded the shuttle that took the Matriarchs here from the large lodge the Grand Matriarch owned. One of the sentinels at the bottom of the stairs raised the two closest to the Matriarchs' position. "Our sentries in the shuttle can't reach the house. There could have been an avalanche near the communications towers from last night's snowstorm."

"You know the protocol, we can't take the GM to the house if we don't get a confirmation." The First Sentinel had been with Malayne for more than a century. Though there was never any real threat against the safety of the GM, guarding the guardians of her people required absolute attention to detail and following protocol to the letter. "Keep trying and let me know as soon as you've made contact."

The Grand Matriarch's shuttle was on a holding pattern until the sentinels could talk with the caretakers of the lodge. The communications had been restored locally but not with the relay tower outside the mountain. The remote tower that handled the uplink must have been damaged and the caretakers had made a call to get repairs underway.

The two Matriarchs went in to the main hall where a fire was burning in the large stone fireplace. Both Matriarchs took off their coats and stood by the fire to warm up. The First Sentinel and the tech guru on the squad went to talk with the caretaker about the problem with the communications. But two sentinels guarded each of the two entrances and two more stood not far from the Matriarchs by the fireplace. Then they heard a high-pitched whining, and two sentinels next to the Matriarchs pushed them on the floor and cover them with their own bodies. "Bomb!"

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High above the mountains, an assassin sat in his small craft monitoring the hacking of communications into the large stone lodge below. The attack would start soon. The assassin had just arrived at this optimal location where he could see the winter lodge unobscured through his scope. The lodge was built into the mountain like a fortress, and short of taking out the side of the mountain, a blunt assault wouldn't be efficient. That meant the attacking force must have bought someone from the inside to have access to communications and power. The attackers hacked communications earlier to prevent anyone in the lodge from calling for reinforcements, but the location network was turned back on so the attacker's ship in orbit could get a hold of the attacking force on the ground. The assassin started his own hacking with a top shunt program he bought on Illium to slice into the attackers' data stream. He knew that the attacker's ship in orbit could send their own reinforcements, and he had to break into their communications to prevent that before revealing himself in the fight.

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Inside the lodge, the power went out as soon as the bomb went off. The entire structure went dark, and then backup lights running on battery power turned on automatically, admitting a soft and dim orange light.

"Get the Grand Matriarch to the vault, now!" Jamaya's voice was breaking as she shouted over the noise of the skylight's glass shattering. They could hear people rappelling down ropes and heavy combat boots pounding the floor in the corridor that led to the main hall. Jamaya checked the two sentinels that were covering her and Malayne, but neither survived the blast. "Damn it!"

"But the generator will take at least 10 minutes to charge up. We haven't used that thing in decades!" All sentinels had raced to surround the Matriarchs in a protective circle.

"Then better start it now, we'll hold them off until the power is back up online." Jamaya took the pistols off the dead sentinels' bodies and motioned the First Sentinel to secure the Grand Matriarch.

"No, Maya! You come with me." Malayne was still dazed from the blast but when she heard Jamaya's orders she protested.

The First Sentinel took hold of the GM's arm and quickly whisked her down the wide stairs toward the vault at the end of another large hall a level below the main hall. Malayne looked back at the four sentinels and Jamaya squatted behind the chairs and a flipped table, getting read for the assault force.

Heavily armored and armed, the attacking forces came through the entrance on the other side. Bullets started whistling above the asari's heads. Jamaya ordered, "Fire!" All five asari popped up from cover and opened fire. The first two attackers went down and at least a dozen more sought cover and started raining bullets on the defending force. The chairs quickly dissolved into useless piles of burnt debris under the incinerating fire.

"Pull back!" Jamaya ordered. They moved to the doorway that led to the lower level hall, and two sentinels put up a double barrier while Jamaya used her biotics to move a heavy metal decorative table to the center of the hallway for cover. The sentinels joined her behind the table.

"How many clips do we have left?" One of the sentinels asked.

"We don't have enough firepower to take out their shields." her teammate said with frustration. "And their armor has mods that can take some biotic assaults."

"We only need to hold them until either the power comes back up or the generator powers up in the vault, then we'll move into the vault and wait it out." Jamaya looked at the vault at the end of the hall behind them, still dark without power. She returned her attention to the sentinels. "You're trained for this, protect the Grand Matriarch at all cost."

"You should join the GM, Matriarch." The youngest sentinel protested.

Jamaya smiled. "I was a commando before you were even born." That made the group chuckle. Jamaya gave them a nod.

The sentinels gave her their acknowledgement and they started firing at the advancing attackers together. A grenade landed by their feet, and the young sentinel picked it up and quickly tossed it back. As it exploded, a scream came through thick smoke. The sentinel smiled, "I got one!" Before she finished her words, a bullet went right through her neck and she dropped on the floor, dead instantly. Her friends saw the horror and they screamed in anger. One of them picked up the pistol from her dead friend and jammed her fingers into both pistols' triggers. As she stood up and gave away her position, a rain of bullets hit her armor like hail on leaves, and her body shook with each jolt and then it fell limply on the ground.

Another grenade exploded right in front of the metal table, flipped it into the air and took the asari with them. When the table came back down, it landed on its side making a large booming sound. Jamaya landed only a couple of feet away from the table, her ears ringing and she couldn't see through the grenade smoke. "Get up!" She shouted blindly without knowing how many sentinels were left nor could she hear her own voice with the high pitched ringing still in her ears. "Get up and keep shooting!" She leveled her guns shakily and fired in the general direction of the attackers.

As the smoke cleared, Jamaya saw the last remaining sentinel sitting on the floor, holding her leg. "The grenade got my leg, but I can still shoot." She struggled but couldn't move.

Jamaya crawled over to the sentinel and grabbed her arm and helped her stand up. "Come on, I've run out clips. I will support you and put up a barrier. You keep shooting." The two remaining asari stumbled to take cover behind the bent table. Jamaya erected a barrier and the sentinel lifted her pistol, together they got up and started firing again.

The attackers had thought that the last grenade had taken out all the defenders, and they formed a two-by-two formation and moved toward the door. The sudden bullets from the sentinel's pistol took out the shields of the front two attackers and one bullet found its target as he went down holding his neck ripped open by the pistol bullet. His fellow attackers didn't stop or spare a look at the man down on the ground, they formed into a long line, focusing all their firepower on the two asari.

The sentinel's body jolted as a bullet went through the barrier and hit her in the chest, and she stopped firing. As she dropped on the floor, her weight dragged Jamaya down with her. Jamaya let go of the sentinel's arm, her hands glowing and crackling with biotic power. With a loud grunt, the Matriarch sent out a large biotic shockwave that was as bright and blinding as lightning and it caught the advancing party by surprise and took out half the line. Watching their fellow attackers' bodies flying in the air and turned into mush as they landed back down, the remaining attackers raced to get closer to the last defender before she should muster another large shockwave.

Jamaya picked up the sentinel's gun as soon as she sent out the shockwave and fired the pistol while waiting for her biotics to recover. Bullets whizzing around her, she felt a heavy push below her left shoulder and above her breast that knocked her off her feet. She scrambled to get up, but her body's left side wouldn't budge. She looked down quickly and saw blood seeping through her dress, and when she looked up again, the room was spinning.

"No, stay awake." She knew she'd been shot but she raised her good arm and kept firing the pistol. When the gun was emptied, Jamaya turned her head to check the vault, still dark and without power. "Damn it! What's taking them so long?"

Jamaya pushed herself to the table and propped up her body against it so that she could see where the attackers were. As she concentrated her mind to bring up her biotics, she used the edge of the table to drag herself to stand up. If this were to be her death, let it be for protecting the one she loved. She was helpless when her daughter died, she should have been there to save her. When the rescuers found the wreckage of the shuttle, her daughter was still alive but she died on the way to the hospital. If Jamaya had been there she might had a chance to save her baby, but she was on a business trip off world. She never got the chance. But she had a chance now to protect her teacher, her second mother. She'd not let anyone touch her as long as she was still breathing; as long as she could stand, she'd hold the line.

Shakily, Jamaya stood up. With a small cocky smile on the corner of her lips, she made her body glow. She would send the last deadly wave of energy no matter how many bullets touched her body, and she would take out everyone in the room and join her daughter and her bondmate in the eternal embrace.

The advancing attackers saw the wounded asari leaving her cover and standing in front of them without armor on her body or a weapon in her hand, they stopped shooting and watched her stumble toward them slowly. Perhaps she'd like to surrender or perhaps the blood lost from her wound confused her, but when they saw her body started to glow with energy, the remaining attackers raised their rifles again and were ready to take down the last asari blocking their way. Before Jamaya's biotics reached critical mass, the power suddenly came on, lighting the room and blinding the attackers who were wearing visors adjusted to the lowlight environment. As Jamaya focused her eyes again on the attackers, the last one's neck snapped in the hands of a drell. All the remaining attackers lay dead by his feet.

_What just happened?_ Jamaya simmered down her biotics and tried to focus on the drell that had just saved her life.

When the First Sentinel practically dragged the Grand Matriarch into the safety vault, she ordered the other, "I'll start the generator. Grab assault rifles and load up on clips. The door won't move without power, but we'll create a living wall to shield the GM! Nobody comes through that door, you hear me?" Her teammate nodded her response while taking out heavier weapons from the racks by the metal wall.

Malayne went straight to her favorite weapon case and took out an old shotgun.

"Grand Matriarch, what are you doing?" The First Sentinel asked.

"I'm not sitting here like a scared little pyjak while my people are dying out there." She took a large belt of shotgun shells and slung it over her shoulder and pumped her shotgun.

"Grand Matriarch, you can't leave the vault. It's not safe out there!" The sentinel protested.

"I lived a thousand years, if it's my time to die today, so be it. But I'll be damned if I let the young ones out there give their lives to save my old bones. So either you hide in here to stay safe or you come with me and show those dross what asari commandos are made of." Malayne started walking back out the vault as she spoke. The sentinels rushed to get in front of her.

As they ascended the stairs, Malayne saw Jamaya standing in the doorway, her body glowing with biotics. _Thank the goddess she's all right_, Malayne let out a sigh of relief but her face darkened when she saw the carnage around Jamaya where her sentinels lay. The power came back on just as they reached the doorway with their guns leveled, and they saw a drell make quick work of the attackers. In the blink of an eye, all assailants were dead and not a single shot was fired.

"Check the attackers!" the First Sentinel ordered her teammate as she moved to the drell and pointed her rifle at him. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The drell didn't move a muscle. "My name is Thane Krios and I'm here to save the Grand Matriarch's life. I've jammed their communications and I can open a line so that you can call for help." With a nod from the sentinel, the drell brought up his omni-tool.

With the sentinels taking care of things around her, Malayne put down her shotgun and ammo belt. She turned to grab Jamaya's arm. "Maya, am I glad to see that you're all right." But before she could finish, Jamaya's biotics dimmed and her body fell into Malayne's arms. "Maya!" The elder asari gasped. With the biotic glow gone from her body, Malayne could see Jamaya's white dress was covered in purple blood on the left side, starting from just below her shoulder and all the way to her knee.

Jamaya's body started trembling as she grasped Malayne's arm and gasped for air. "Can… can't breathe." A sentinel came with a pack of medi-gel and squeezed it onto Jamaya's wound.

"Maya, look at me. You'll fight with everything you've got, for me. I can't lose you, not now. Not after I've lost everybody close to me. You're the only one I've got left. Hold on for an old asari, please hold on." Her voice trailed off but her hands gripped the trembling body even tighter. Behind her, she could hear the sentinels on the line calling for an ambulance and reinforcements.

Jamaya's eyes started to lose focus and her breathing slowed down. She opened her mouth but nothing came out, her eyes aguishly searching but her gaze couldn't focus on the face of her mentor. In desperation, Malayne held Jamaya's cheek in her hand and initiated a meld. As soon as she entered Jamaya's mind, the Grand Matriarch almost lost her grip of the wounded asari in her arms. The pain from the wound and the pressure against the lungs were almost unbearable, but Malayne quickly gathered herself and used her own strength to keep Jamaya breathing.

"Mal, you know where I want to take my eternal rest." Jamaya spoke to Malayne through their meld.

Malayne shook her head. "No, Maya! I will not hear this kind of talk. I have not given you permission to leave me and you have never disobeyed my order. Don't you start that now! Let me help you."

Gently Malayne brought up an image of Jamaya's daughter, the youngling was smiling after her first biotic charge against the wall, then the image of Jamaya's bondmate's smile when he handed her a bundle of blue joy after she'd given birth to her daughter, then the image of the young kid climbing the stone stairs to the vista on all fours, her purple dress covered in snow.

The emergency response team finally stormed in and strapped Jamaya onto a gurney and hooked her up to a machine to help her breathing. Malayne followed the medics, but the First Sentinel stopped her. "Grand Matriarch, you know the protocol. We need four sentinels to accompany you at all times. We have only two left, you can't leave."

"I don't give a damn about protocol, I'm not leaving Maya's side." She still held Jamaya's hand. Just as their shuttle took off for the hospital, the reinforcement shuttle arrived. The First Sentinel let out a sigh of relief and requested that they follow the ambulance shuttle and bring the drell.

Now with a squad of sentinels creating an impenetrable wall of protection around the hospital wing, Malayne finally let herself sag into the sofa. The doctor had told her that Jamaya's operation was going well and she'd likely make a full recovery. The Grand Matriarch had changed into a fresh set of clothes and washed her hands that were stained with Jamaya's blood. "Bring the drell." She said in a low voice.

"Who sent those assassins to the lodge?" Malayne asked as she watched the drell perform the necessary courtesies.

"They were not assassins, they were mercenaries." The drell tilted his head down but his black eyes never left the Grand Matriarch's face. "They were commissioned by Nassana Dantius."

Malayne pounded her hand on the sofa in the hospital waiting area, and then she stood up and walked a few paces away. "She had the guts to take action against us!" She muttered to herself, and then she turned back and faced the drell. "I supposed you'd like a payment for saving my life. Give your information to one of my sentinels, they'll get that sorted."

"The payment has already been taken care of." The drell said unhurriedly.

"By whom?"

"I was hired by the Shadow Broker to save your life."

Liara? Malayne was surprised for the second time tonight. The young maiden had barely taken over the Shadow Broker network and she'd already done more than all her intel people combined. The tide was indeed changing.

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Liara hadn't expected to be back on Illium this soon but she had an urgent matter to attend to in person. The drell assassin had just foiled the attempt on the Grand Matriarch's life and he'd soon be on Illium to fulfill the second part of his contract: to kill Nassana Dantius. It was Liara's call to make and she made it. From the communications between Dantius Corporation and Thessia, Liara discovered that Dantius had backers in the Matriarchy and Nassana's family had connections with many government branches. If Nassana were to be arrested and put through the asari legal system, it'd be years before she was to see any punishment if at all. Even justice could be bought at times, and Liara didn't want to take that chance. She still believed the one thing she learned from dealing with the old Shadow Broker: one must pay for the things one had done.

Another reason she wanted to see this drell assassin in person was a personal one. Nightshade had been telling Liara about this drell, clearly with admiration for his skills. The drell's own report from Elasa was impressive even though he only stated facts without embellishment. Liara had a plan to recruit him for Shepard, she had the credits to do it and if this drell was as good as everyone said he was, he'd be a useful asset. Now that the old Shadow Broker was gone, the inevitable trip through the Omega 4 relay weighed heavily on Liara's mind. She knew she couldn't stop Shepard from going through with it, but she could at least help her build a killer team.

"What are you doing here?" Shepard stood up from her desk when she saw the asari walk through the door to the Loft.

"I'm happy to see you too." The asari walked into the human's waiting arms and gave her a long hug. "I'm here to help you recruit the best assassin credits can buy."

"An assassin? I'm not putting assassins on my team, Liara. We're going on a suicide mission, I need people I can trust."

"He just saved the lives of the asari leaders. Nightshade said he is the best in the trade." Liara pulled back from their embrace and looked at Shepard.

Shepard sighed, "But an assassin? Cerberus wants me to recruit some thief and now you want me to recruit an assassin. Who knows, one day I'll need to recruit criminals and convicts for my band of misfits. Tell me why I need a thief to fight the Collectors?"

"Because it'll make me feel better if you had the best of everything for the mission." Liara knew that look in Shepard's eyes, the look of defiance.

"Liara, I'm a trained Marine. I already feel like I'm pretending to be who I was running around the galaxy on this Cerberus ship, now I'm supposed to trust thieves and assassins with my life, and trust them not to sell me out for a lucrative contract or a few credits? I won't do that."

"Well, what do you want then?"

"I want Ashley back, I want Pierce back, I want my Marines back, then you can talk about building a team. And I want Tali and Wrex onboard, then this might, just might feel like a home again." Shepard let go of Liara and leaned on her desk with her arms crossed in front of her.

Liara knew what that stance meant and she didn't give in to Shepard's stubbornness. "Look, let us just go and talk to him. You can decide whether you want him on your team or not. He could be a great asset, Shepard."

"Yeah, for a fee."

"Which I'll happily pay. Your safety is priceless." Liara uncrossed Shepard's arms and put them on her own hips. She grabbed Shepard's red hair in each hand. "I want this to get through your thick hanar head, I am now the Shadow Broker, if I have to scour every corner of the galaxy for the best weapons, armors and ship upgrades, I will. I will arm you to the teeth and increase your odds of survival. I'll recruit anyone whom I think will help you with your mission. By the time I'm done, it will no longer look like a suicide attempt!"

Shepard smiled as the asari wiggled her head by her hair to make a point. "There's only one way you can make me do anything and you know what that is."

Liara laughed and instead of letting go of Shepard's hair, she pulled the human in for a kiss. "When do you want me to make good on that promise."

"As soon as I fulfill my end of the bargain. Let's go and get us an assassin."

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On top of the Dantius Tower, Shepard and Liara watched the drell snap the necks of two bodyguards and shoot Nassana Dantius in a blink of an eye. The assassin prayed for the dead while the soldier and her companions watched, then he walked over to Liara. "Nightshade informed me that you wish to hire me to join the Commander on her mission against the Collectors."

Liara looked at Shepard and then at the drell. "Did Nightshade tell you how dangerous the mission is?"

The drell looked at the Commander and turned his attention back to Liara. "Nightshade told me what you went through for the Commander. I wish I had done the same for the one I loved, but I failed her. You have found your redemption. I'm still seeking mine. If the Commander would accept my help, I'll gladly join her on her quest."

"Price is no object." Liara gave Shepard another look, but the human didn't move.

"I don't want any payment, only a chance. A chance to redeem myself in the eyes of the goddesses and in the eyes of the one I loved."

Shepard took a step forward. "Why did you pray for the ones you killed?"

"They've all committed sins but they also paid for them with the ultimate price and their souls deserved peaceful rest. I pray for the goddess Kalahira to take into account that their hearts were pure when they came into this world, to forgive their wickedness and contention, and to protect the innocence in all of us." The drell looked at the soldier. "Who do you fight for, Commander?"

Shepard glanced at Liara but didn't answer. The drell gave her a slight nod of understanding. "I'm dying, Commander. I have a son. I wasn't there for him and his mother when they needed me for most of my life. But if in death I can make the galaxy safe for him to live in, the goddess might look favorably upon my soul and allow me to reunite with my wife in the afterlife."

Liara turned to Shepard, and the soldier extended her hand to the drell, "Welcome to the team, Mr. Krios."

Thane took Shepard's hand. "You bestow on me a deep honor, Commander."

A smile spread on Liara's face.

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Fin 2 grabbed Fin 1 as soon as they got back in Nos Astra. "Onyx told me G.G. put in a transfer request two weeks ago and her order should come in any day now."

"What?" Fin 1 almost shouted. "Have you asked G.G. about it?"

"Not yet. I wanted to find out something first. Do you still have a tracker on that salarian? I'm thinking it has something to do with him."

Fin 1 brought up her omni-tool. "Yup. I know where to find him. Let's go grab the others."

All four Fins cornered the salarian in a game room, and Fin 1 ripped the gaming visor off the salarian's face. Fin 2 took him by this collar and pushed him against the wall. "Why are you blackmailing our friend?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The salarian waved his arms, but Fin 3 and Fin 4 pushed them against wall as well.

"I'm talking about Faryla! I believe you know her." Fin 2's hand crackled with biotics. "I can push this into your large brain and turn it into mush, or you can tell me why you're blackmailing her."

"Okay, okay. No need to get hostile. I'm only trying to help that little bitch. Can't believe she ratted me out!"

Fin 2's grip tightened.

"Just relax, okay? Did she also tell you why she needs my help?" The salarian wanted to see how much the commandos knew.

"She said for health reasons." Fin 2 was talking to Fin 1.

The salarian cut in. "Did she tell you her health problem is that she's an Ardat-Yakshi?"

Fin 2's biotics sparkled. "You're a foul mouthed liar! I'll take your head off!"

Fin 1 held Fin 2's glowing arm and turned to the salarian. "What did you say?" Her voice was sharp as a knife.

"I have a data disc in my pocket, it documents everything about her and her mother. Take a look at it yourself."

Fin 1 nodded to Fin 3 to let go of the salarian's arm and he produced a disc. Fin 1 dropped it into her omni-tool. The salarian wasn't lying. Everything about G.G.'s mother, G.G.'s treatment as a child and her implant was documented. Fin 2 looked at everything with her and she said weakly. "He could have fabricated all that."

"I didn't!" The salarian protested. "My research is legit, you can see that. And I have proof. All the implants on her were registered when she joined the commando unit, but one of them is classified. Her mother had a relative in a high level position in the asari military to lock that info, but I have the codes to unlock it. If you scan it and use my code to unlock, you'll find that the implant is to stem her hunger to feed. I know that because I made the implant for her. But it's only matter of time before she burns that implant when melding with someone and kills that person or leaves that person in a coma. She's a time bomb waiting to go off. Which is why I offered to help."

Fin 1 paced a few times, this had to be true! "Why didn't you go through legal channels?"

"And say what? Your military hired an Ardat-Yakshi?"

Fin 1 looked at Fin 2 who hadn't said a word, and she ordered the other Fins. "Turn him over to the local police on charge of blackmailing an asari commando. I don't want him to disappear; so let the police babysit him for now. We need to get back to the ship."

After detective Anaya picked up the salarian, all the Fins were staring at Fin 2 who looked like she was in a daze. "She lied to me." Fin 2 murmured. "I thought she loved me, she said she loved me! She said to my face!"

Her friends looked at each other. They could clearly see the pain and confusion on Fin 2's face and they felt powerless to help their best friend.

"Never mind that she lied to you, Alia. She could have killed you!" Fin 1 was forever the logical one.

Fin 4 who had been teasing Fin 2 for not getting into G.G.'s pants exclaimed. "And I almost got you killed!"

Fin 2 wasn't listening to her friends. "She said she loved me. She lied to me! How could an Ardat-Yakshi love anyone?" Her voice was trembling. "And I was such a fool! I gave my heart to a monster."

Fin 3 and F 4 each took hold of Fin 2's arms trying to comfort her. Fin 1 sneered, "I say we do the right thing, take her into the brig and let the Matriarch decide whether to kill her or not. A monster needs to be in her cage, don't you think?"

Fin 3 and Fin 4 nodded their heads, "We kill Ardat-Yakshi who don't stay in the monastery. The Matriarch knows that. Let's go and bring the monster to justice."

Fin 2 was still in shock. She was dragged by her friends toward the docks and back on the ship while wild thoughts going through her mind.

_Did she enjoy toying with me?_ _Did she laugh at me privately when I confessed my affection, my desire for her and my complete love for her? Did she hide in her small workroom and write in her log "Today, I got one step closer to possessing the body and soul of a powerful asari commando" and gloat with an evil smile? Did she plan on leaving me somewhere nobody could find in a vegetable state after she got her satisfaction? _

That Demon of the Night Winds must pay dearly! With each question Fin 2's face turned colder and colder, and she looked at her friends who were ready to take action. "She must pay!"

G.G. was working on an upgrade to one of her scopes in the Blue Sabre's armory. This was to be her last assignment before her official leave tomorrow. The salarian had produced a credible health certificate that allowed her transfer to a reserve unit where she could seek long term treatment without any suspicion. The door to the armory swooshed open and her entire squad stormed in. When G.G.'s eyes readjusted from staring through a magnifying glass to her teammates, she knew something was wrong. Everyone stood by Onyx who kept her distance, fear and anger in their eyes and on their faces. G.G. dropped her scope.

"Restrain her." Onyx ordered. Two Fins each grabbed an arm and cuffed them behind G.G.'s back. Fin 1 scanned the back of G.G.'s neck and used the salarian codes to confirm the implant. She nodded to the Fins.

"Wait, what's going on? Ouch, you're hurting me." G.G. struggled against the Fins, "What did I do?"

Fin 4 hit G.G. in the face. "Shut up, you murderous bitch!" Fin 3 did the same. Before G.G. had realized what happened, she saw her own blood dripping on the floor. Her nose and lips were broken by the two Fins who were now holding her arms after cuffing her wrists.

Fin 1 walked over and swung her own fist and connected with G.G.'s stomach. G.G. fell on her knees and gagged. "You lied your way into an elite commando squad. You put all of our lives in danger and you took us all for fools with your deception." _And you hurt my best friend deeply._

Fin 2 hadn't moved since she stormed in with her squad. The idea of her almost melding with an Ardat-Yakshi hiding inside of such a seemingly innocent body was almost unthinkable. Serving in the military, the thought of dying wasn't a stranger to Fin 2, but she had trusted this Ardat-Yakshi with her heart in a way she had never done it with another; and she had compared this monster's innocence to her dead sister's. How dare she taint the memory of her sister?

G.G. finally recovered from the punch Fin 1 gave her as she straightened her back. She searched for Fin 2 in the crowd. Why hadn't she stopped the others and helped her? G.G. found Fin 2's face and she saw shock, anger but most of all, betrayed. G.G.'s tears fell as she locked her eyes with Fin 2's and she shook her head lightly. _Please don't leave me!_

Fin 2 watched her friends holding the Ardat-Yakshi, waiting for her to do whatever she saw fit, assault her, verbally or physically. She could take her revenge right in front of everybody, and no one was going to stop her. But Fin 2 couldn't move her legs and she couldn't move her eyes away from the bleeding face. When G.G.'s eyes started to plead for help, Fin 2 turned around and pushed her way through the commandos and stumbled her way out the room.

"No, Alia!" G.G.'s desperate voice came behind her, but Fin 2 didn't stop. Fin 1 gave the Ardat-Yakshi another solid punch in the stomach, "You don't get to call her that, you fucking monster!" G.G. fell on the floor.

"Kill her!" Someone behind Onyx shouted. "We kill Ardat-Yakshi who don't stay in a monastery." Onyx didn't move her eyes from G.G.'s face. G.G. struggled to get up on her knees and she pleaded to her squad leader. "No, Onyx! Please, don't kill me. I haven't done anything wrong."

Onyx nodded to Gauze, "Put her to sleep." Gauze was prepared. She took out a syringe and walked over to G.G. and quickly jabbed the needle into her neck.

"No!" G.G. struggled against the Fins' restraints. "Please don't kill me." Heat coursed through her body, and as she fought to keep her eyes open, G.G. saw the room spinning and she whispered. "I haven't done anything wrong."

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Detective Anaya took the salarian into her office. She pointed at a spot in front of her desk, "Stand here," and she sat behind the table and started paperwork. "Your name?"

The salarian wasn't happy with the restraints the commandos had put on him and he demanded. "Take off my restraints then we'll talk. I'm not the criminal here!"

"What are you talking about? You were trying to blackmail an asari commando. That's a serious offense by asari law." Anaya raised her voice only to hear the salarian match her volume in his high pitched voice.

"Oh, yeah? Did they tell you that the asari is an Ardat-Yakshi masquerading as a commando?"

Anaya was silent, shocked by the accusation. A voice came from the corner of the room, "Did you say there was an Ardat-Yakshi hiding among the asari commandos?" An asari in red armor hopped down from the desk she was sitting on in the corner and walked closer to the salarian, Anaya sat back into her chair.

"That's right!" The salarian raised his chin at the approaching asari.

To his surprise, the asari gripped his neck tightly. "You shouldn't have blackmailed the Ardat-Yakshi, you should have turned her over to the authorities. Now you'll pay for that mistake."

Detective Anaya stood up. "Please, Justicar! This is my jurisdiction. He's under my custody. Please don't kill him. I'll see to it that justice will be done."

The Justicar looked at the detective and turned back to the salarian. "Tell me where this Ardat-Yakshi is hiding then I'll give you to the detective."

Coughing and gasping for air, the salarian pushed out the words. "The Blue Sabre."

The Justicar let go of the salarian's neck and turned to Anaya. "I've been on that ship and I need to get on it again!"

"What are you going to do?" Anaya knew the answer already.

"I must kill the Ardat-Yakshi!"

* * *

**A/N: **A big "Thank You" to renegadebabe and Tayg, you both know how much you mean to me. And thank you all for reading and reviewing!


	20. Chapter 20 The Big Tipper

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty – The Big Tipper**

Aethyta wandered into Eternity seeking to speak with Fern Gnor. The Grand Matriarch and Jamaya had told her before they went on their winter vacation at Elasa that the asari Matriarchy was launching an investigation into Nassana Dantius and that they'd expect the funding from Matriarch North to dwindle if not be completely cut off. Aethyta would have to find other ways to make up the difference, a large difference at that. Her fleet was growing, seven ships if counting the Benezia, and the plan was to acquire at least five times that.

Aethyta hated dealing with politics though she was certain that she could handle Matriarch South. While Aethyta was no stranger at making political deals in the past, on many occasions, it involved head butting to get what she wanted, but using sex wasn't beyond her station. A good lay was a good lay. Aethyta was never in the habit of turning down a no-strings attached "embrace eternity", she wasn't going to start now, especially when she must do it for the greater good. If that was what it took to keep Matriarch South's bank account open to the Tuchanka Project, so be it. But short of sniping Matriarch North, Aethyta had no answer for that old crow. Better just let Malayne and Jamaya deal with her, Aethyta had decided.

Preparing for the shortcomings in funding, Fern Gnor had come up with the idea of getting his mother's backing. A matriarch in a non-matriarchal society, Fern's mother was the leader of his clan and his clan was one of the five major powers on Irune, controlling a large portion of galaxy's credit flow.

"You think we can get her support?" Aethyta asked as she watched Fern open up a chest and present her with a white and blue suit of light armor and helmet for her to wear on Irune.

"Only one way to do that." Fern was excited when Aethyta called with a financial challenge. This was his territory and he knew exactly how to solve the problem.

"And what's that? Charm her, bribe her with credits…"

"No, never mention the word 'credits' in front of mother, she thinks it's vulgar. Instead use words like 'health' or 'weather'." At the mention of Fern's mother, the volus tensed up and started talking faster.

"A volus who uses euphemism for money, this I gotta see!" Aethyta amused. "So we can't ask her for credits, how do we get her support then?"

"We must win the winter games!" Fern cheered up again at the idea.

"What winter games?" In all of her years, Aethyta had never visited Irune. There was no mountain so high or ocean so deep to make her want to spend her holidays in a suit and breathe recycled air within her own suit for the entire duration. No, sir. She'd rather bask in the hot sun of Tuchanka or at least sit on the beach somewhere on Thessia.

"We hold winter games on Irune, and all clans are invited to compete. The winner's clan gets all the investments from the rest of the clans. Credits are only worth anything if you control majority of them. This is how we determine whose businesses we all invest in. I'll win the games for you! And your money will return at least 5 fold."

"Fern, this isn't one of your little schemes to get me to go to bed with you, is it?"

"I wish. We don't mate in the winter and it's in the middle of the winter on Irune right now. First we feast then we play the games." Just as surely as a young man's thought turned to love in the spring, a young volus's thoughts, or rather the thoughts of a male volus of any age, turned to profit in the winter, or more specifically, how to turn bigger profits.

"I had no idea these games were so important in helping you make financial decisions." Aethyta mused. She learned a long time ago to let each species do their magic at what they did the best. She never questioned how quarian made combat drones so effective and she'd never question how volus keep the galaxy's finances flowing smoothly.

"How did you think my mother got to be the head of the clan? She trapped a krogan to be her husband for most of her life, and he won the games for our clan year after year." Fern tapped busily on his omni-tool.

"So you want me to be the krogan replacement and win the games for you?"

"No, they've changed the rules of the games since my stepfather. We have to use volus in the games, but there are no rules against supporting personnel. That's where you come in." He brought up a holoimage of a contraption. "I designed this to bring down the Big Tipper. You'll help me and my cousins to win the race."

"Is one of these cousins the one who owns the hospital that saved Fin 2's life?" Aethyta had read the reports on the sniper incident where Fin 2 saved Liara's life by taking the shot herself.

"No, that cousin is an idiot and simulstim junkie. He'll only mess things up, and he's Mother's favorite so he doesn't have to lift a finger in these games. I have 12 other cousins who will work with us." His rich cousin's presence always goaded Fern, and his own mother's public affection for his cousin didn't help the matter either.

When they arrived on Irune, Fern took off his suit and smiled at Aethyta. "You'll be the one in a suit from here on."

Aethyta had never seen Fern out of his suit before. His skin was an ashen grey color and his eyes were large and round with glowing white rims and pale sky blue in the center. "Fern, you have beautiful eyes!" Aethyta exclaimed, and that made the volus very happy.

When they entered the banquet hall, the first person they ran into was Fern's idiot cousin. "This is the cousin I was telling you about." That dampened Fern's good mood.

Fern's cousin looked extremely young and pale. Aethyta was told that paler skins came from high-class clans, as they didn't have to work under the sun in the fields. The impressively pale skin was only overshadowed by his large girth that blocked anything below it. Aethyta tilted her head but she still couldn't see the volus' legs.

"I am Meelag and I am the richest man in my clan!" The pale volus didn't show any respect to Aethyta.

"Okay, short-legs. You should spend some credits on implants that make your legs longer." Aethyta didn't owe him any respect either.

Fern quickly grabbed Aethyta's hand and stopped her from offering more words of wisdom. He jumped in front of the asari and smiled at his cousin. "Cousin, remember to hunch your shoulders so you don't look taller than her, don't walk faster than her, you'll make her feel old. And try not to smile, or she'll think you're an idiot!"

"Okay, cousin. You leave the wooing to me!" Meelag trotted off toward the great hall where a feast had been laid out on a giant circular table.

Fern looked at Aethyta. "My cousin has all the luck in the galaxy at making money, but he's an idiot when it comes to socializing. We have to be nice to him to get his backing. He likes to boast but he didn't lie about how rich he is."

Aethyta snorted at the back of the extremely round and short-legged volus, and then she turned to the volus she really liked. "Fern, you do realize no matter how much I hunch my shoulders I'm still gonna look taller than your mother, and she'd have to run very fast to match my walking speed. But not smiling at her, that I can do."

Fern's big eyes sparkled and his lips pursed up. "Oh, my! I get hot and bothered when you show your power. You're not bound to the same social ethics because you're an asari. Mother loves asari. You could burn a pile of credits in front her, she still wouldn't punish you."

After several rounds of wishing for "good health" and "agreeable weather" being offered to "Mother", Aethyta was finally presented to the matriarch of the volus clan. She found the old volus quite small and unremarkable. Mother had pale skin as well and her hair was the color of old driftwood. Her blouse was also pale grey and her long skirt matched the color of her hair. She was sitting in a pale stone chair, only the deep redwood cane separated her from the background. "My son told me you're half krogan." The old lady ran her gaze up and down Aethyta's bright blue and white armor.

"Father was a krogan." Aethyta replied simply, not a trace of smile on her face as she stood tall.

"My last husband was a krogan. His deep laughter could send chills down the spines of his enemy and his thunderous growl could soil even the mightiest of them. Alas, he was never in a war, too busy with his duties here on Irune at my side. I wish my son was charming enough and strong enough to attract a krogan."

"Mother, you know how hard it is to find a female krogan? There aren't enough krogan females for the krogans!"

"I've given you enough credits to buy an entire krogan clan!"

So much for euphemism, that didn't last long. Aethyta smiled.

"Mother! Those credits were for my education." Fern's voice was already flustered.

"Then show me the diploma from the Ten-Clan Academy!" The old lady stomped her cane lightly.

"Ten-Clan Academy? Mother, you want me to get slaughtered by the organ leggers? Just last week, pirates snatched a whole shuttle full of students and professors from Ten-Clan Academy when they were on a survival training trip on Maskawa. Their body parts are probably being traded by one of the companies you invest in."

Fern's protest didn't stem his mother's enthusiasm for embarrassing her son in front of the clan and their guest. "Now my dear nephew Meelag here has learned something useful. He has acquired biotics skills! That's some achievement for a volus! Show them, Meelag." With a smile, Mother pointed the center of the hall and introduced the short-legged pop-belly to the audience.

"I'm a biotic god! I studied under the great Glow Feather, the most powerful biotic known to this galaxy." With an over exaggerated version of the hero stance he learned from the simulstims, Meelag grunted with a sound that could easily be misconstrued as passing bad gas or maybe even a small kidney stone, he stretched out his arms and willed his body to glow. But nothing came. He grunted again, this time with a more guttural quality while his gut jiggled from his effort. After much ado, his fingers glowed with biotics and Mother applauded. Everyone else followed suit. The great hall was filled with clapping. Meelag was more sure of himself now, and with a long and painful groan, he formed a small biotic orb in his hand and he started bouncing it in his tiny palm. The clapping became thunderous led by Mother's banging on her chair arm.

"I hope he didn't crap his pants for that display." Aethyta watched Meelag with amusement and when she looked at Fern, she saw Fern covering his face with a hand and shaking his head. This was all he needed, having his idiotic cousin stealing the show from him yet again. He tried to shout to his cousins. "We need to get ready to watch the foot race" But nobody could hear him. Aethyta put a hand on Fern's small shoulder.

"Watch this." She brought her own biotics into one hand and she quickly shot out a thin string of energy at Meelag. The string pulled the orb in the volus' hand quickly into Aethyta's hand across the room, attracting everyone's eyes to her hand that now had a much larger ball bouncing. A round of oo and ahs later, Aethyta tossed the ball into the air and followed it with a spiky energy stream that went right through the large ball still in the air. The crowd clapped louder and shouted for more. When the energy came back to Aethyta's hand, she turned it into a large ring. As she squatted down with one hand raised up in the air and the other almost touching the floor to keep the large energy ring in shape, she motioned for Fern Gnor to jump through the ring. He did. That earned another round of thunderous praise. Now, Fern's cousins joined him, and one after another, they jumped through the ring.

Only the loud chime for the games to begin stopped Aethyta's spectacle. Even Mother's face was flustered from the excitement of the impromptu volus circus performance. Fern showed Aethyta into the seat by his mother to watch the foot racing competition. "Matriarch, please strap in." He said loudly so that his mother could hear him talking to Aethyta. Then he leaned into the asari, "Thank you for the rescue with Mother earlier." Aethyta didn't say anything but she gave the volus a wink.

The seats moved on a rail to match the speed of the runners, which wasn't very fast. "Fern, this reminds me of the hunting games we have on Thessia except I'd be eating a sweet fish treat."

"Each running suit emits color coded smoke so that we can tell which team each runner represents." Fern explained to Aethyta.

The course was on a standalone structure and the tracks went up and down in the shapes of ocean waves. The runners started out on a stretch of flat surface but soon they started climbing the steep rise on the course. A couple of them fell behind. As they reached the top of the course, one of them lost his footing, and he rolled down the dipping part of the course, racing ahead of the pack. When he picked himself up again, he didn't move anymore, standing still watching his competitors pass him by.

"What happened?" Aethyta bent down her head to ask Fern.

"Rolling on the course violates the regulations. We can roll faster than we can run. His boots are now locked to the course. They'll unlock when the race is over."

"What is that guy doing by himself on his omni-tool on that tall stool next to the course?"

"He's our official culture recorder and he's recording this event down. That man has god's gift for words. The book will be called the Book of Breaking Dawn. It'll be an inspiration for our future generations to come!"

After several competitions the course was being prepared for the ion bike race, the last race before the real competition, Fern tapped on Aethyta's leg. "Matriarch, I'm afraid it's time for us to prepare for the Big Tipper."

Behind the racetracks, there was a huge stadium. In the center of the field, a large wooden structure that looked like a giant spider stood in the middle. Five long legs supported the large round platform. A white glowing orb stood tall on top of the platform, pulsing with a faint white light.

"Each of the five major clans has a team to cut one of the five legs. Whoever cuts it down first gets the orb and wins the games." Fern looked up at the top of the platform. "They've really grown a big one this year."

"The orb is grown?" Aethyta was amazed.

"Yes, this is the winner in this year's orb festival. It's the largest anyone has seen this year."

"Are these orbs grown on trees?"

"No, in the ground. You dig them out."

"But they're glowing."

"That's why you harvest them at night. When I was a dashing young man, my father used to bring me and all my cousins to help with the family farm out in the countryside. He'd start us each on a small hole and we'd dig half the night until we stood on an orb. They're very delicate; you can't trust the robots to dig. But once we dig them out, we use robots to lift them and put them on the transport ships." He brought up his omni-tool and launched a picture to show Aethyta.

The picture was a panorama view of a large piece of land. Countless glowing orbs dotted the dark landscape, on top of each white glowing orb stood a volus waving at the camera. Aethyta smiled widely at the picture. "Fern, this looks so fucking great!"

That made Fern hop joyfully a couple of times.

Aethyta looked up at the platform, "So you want me to help you tip the Big Tipper?"

"Other teams most likely will cut the legs with axes or saws, and every year it's a close race so there's plenty of arguing over who's the winner. This year, I'm making it clear who wins in the game. I'm going to blow up the leg and make the orb drop right on top of our heads so nobody can argue."

"How are you going to blow it up? I don't see a large rocket launcher?"

"No, that's not allowed. We're allowed to use explosives but each piece has to limited to a very small quantity that can do no harm to the leg on its own. The trick is to gather them up and quickly so that we can have enough explosives to cut through the leg at the thickest joint up there, otherwise the leg won't tip. So I built this conveyer belt to propel my cousins up to the ramp so they can toss a small chunk of explosive into that large sack I've put up there." He pointed at a sack hanging on the middle of the long wooden leg, high up above Aethyta's head. "The problem is once they've tossed the explosives they have to keep going on the conveyer belt and the only way to get them down…"

"My biotics. You want me to use my biotics to lower your cousins down to the ground."

"Yes, but it'll require endurance as they'll need to do this many times and do it very fast." Fern's cousins had gathered around the conveyer belt, pointing at it and chatting with excitement. "We should give it a dry run before the game begins."

Fern organized his cousins into a single line and he climbed up the wooden ladder built into the side of the conveyer belt to a small platform. He pulled the lever that started the engine and he shouted to his cousins down below. "Hop on the belt as soon as it starts moving!" His cousin followed his instructions.

The belt moved slowly and the volus who had already hopped on couldn't get a running start. With the steep angle and not much speed, the cousin who was first in line on the belt tipped backwards and fell on the cousin behind him, and when both of them fell on the volus behind them, it was hopeless watching several rolling volus back down on the ground, knocking down everyone along the way. They picked each other up, thankful that none of them had any explosive in their hands in the dry run.

Aethyta shouted at Fern high above. "Can you adjust the speed of the belt? It needs to go faster!"

"I sure can!" Fern responded and took out his small wrench and adjusted the gear quickly. "Let's try it again!" Once again he turned on the conveyer, and this time his cousins who jumped on the belt took off running on it. As they made their practice throw the first volus leapt off the belt and Aethyta, ready with her biotics below the highest point of the conveyer, trapped him in an energy field and brought him down gently on the ground. When she was just about to release her energy from the first volus, another one leapt off the belt with a cry of excitement and joy, and Aethyta extended her other hand and caught him in midair.

Fern shouted from his platform to Aethyta. "We must win this if we want our stock to return at least five fold. Remember that."

Aethyta waved her arms to lower one volus while catching another. "Five fold. I'd do this for a double. Bring it on!"

When the pre-starting horn sounded, the neighboring clans were laughing at Fern's contraption. Aethyta bent down and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Fern, you go up there and show them who's the boss!"

Fern's large eyes got even bigger. "First kiss then marriage?" Before he got an answer the starting horn sounded. He turned around and started climbing the ladder.

Fern had picked well among his forty or so cousins, the Magnificent 12 all had strong legs, good throwing arms and perfect aim. As they were transported up by the belt and transferred back down by Aethyta's biotics, the entire movement formed a perfect circle of harmony. Fern smiled largely as he watched the explosive pile rising in the large sack. His clan cheered behind them. One shouted, "You'd better increase the speed. The axes are about to cut through." Fern looked through his scope at his neighboring clan who was working on their own wooden leg. He quickly folded his scope and shouted down.

"We have to increase the speed, everyone. Move faster!" He increased the speed of the belt, and his cousins adjusted their speed accordingly. Aethyta now only had time to roll the volus on the ground instead of putting them down gently, which didn't seem to bother the Magnificent 12. They rolled joyfully on the ground and picked themselves up after the momentum died down without missing a beat, and took the small piece of explosive handed to them and jumped on the fast moving belt again.

"Almost there!" Fern shouted his encouragement. Something popped in the contraption. Fern bent down on his platform immediately to check. "Hurry, only a few more! This thing might fall apart!"

As he shouted the last words, the Magnificent 12 was making their last run. As they tossed their patties into the sack, and the entire wooden conveyer collapsed. Instead of moving the volus up, the conveyer belt gave away under their feet. "Ah…" They screamed with their feet still running in midair, falling straight down. Aethyta dove into the collapsing structure and created an energy shield that prevented the volus from plummeting to the ground. As she hit the ground, the conveyer structure fell on top of her along with 12 volus cousins and the structure broke into pieces.

"Oh, my sweet Aethyta! Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere? Do I need to call an ambulance for you?" Fern was shouting all the way down the ladder and he directed his cousins to get off of his girlfriend and help remove the debris and dig Aethyta out of the ruins.

When all the broken pieces of conveyer structure were removed, Fern saw Aethyta laying flat on the ground, her stomach trembling. Fern rushed to his Matriarch's side and found her laughing uncontrollably.

"Are you all right, Matriarch?" Fern's voice was also trembling.

"Fern, I have never had so much fun in my life!" Aethyta couldn't stop her giggling as she picked herself up. "How are you going to light the explosives?"

Fern's cousin handed him a bow and arrow, and lit the tip of the arrow for him. Fern parted his legs and pulled hard on the belly of the string and then let the arrow fly. The aim was true and the fiery tip found its target. A loud boom shook the earth as they stood watching the big explosion up in the air. Other clans' competitors stopped what they were doing and watched the spectacle from the distance.

Without warning, the Big Tipper didn't just tip, but bounced the orb off the platform and sent it flying by the large jolt of its violently broken leg. The large glowing white orb flew right over the heads of Fern, Aethyta and the Magnificent 12 who were fully expecting an orb juice shower, and it landed in the seats where spectators from Fern's clan were sitting, where his mother was sitting. The fruit split open as soon as it hit dozens of volus' heads and covered them in white glowing liquid.

"Mother!" Fern exclaimed! Everyone turned their sights to the matriarch of the clan, now sitting in her juice-soaked seat, looking like a marinated prune. There was fear in Fern's eyes, and he was muttering something about slitting his own wrists or cutting off one leg or something equivalent as he watched his mother pluck herself from the chair. The old lady pulled herself up with some effort from the orb goo, her skirt was weighed down by a pool of plant juice deposited in her lap, and she held her skirt with one hand to stop it from falling off. She slammed down her cane on the stand, making a splashy sound as the tip of the cane spiked into a pool of plant juice. She raised her hand, her arm dripping white goo, and pointed at her son who was now visibly shaking, and in her best contralto voice, the volus clan matriarch announced. "May I present, Fern Gnor, my son, the winner of this year's winter games!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fin 2 walked through the main entrance to the Blue Sabre's brig in full armor and a pistol on her hip. It had been two days since they arrested G.G. and put the Ardat-Yakshi in the ship's brig waiting for the Matriarch's return from Irune to decide her fate. She didn't know why she put armor on for this, but it somehow suited her psyche. She had wanted to ask the Ardat-Yakshi if anything she had said to her was real or was the monster just trying to steal her heart to feed her own hunger in the end? They said a completely possessed mind and heart tasted the sweetest to a Demon of the Night Winds, and these monsters would do anything to make you feel like the most important person in their lives in order to fall in love with them. They said the demons could appear in many shapes and forms, including someone seemingly innocent. A lot had been said in these past two days. Oh, yes, there were talks on the ship. In fact, everyone was talking and adding a little bit of their own imagination to the ever growing lore. None had claimed to know any Ardat-Yakshi before, but the unknown often invoked the most vivid imagination.

But if what they said had some truth to it, Fin 2 wanted to hear it for herself; and if the Ardat-Yakshi had been indeed playing her in order to satisfy her own hunger, Fin 2 would end the monster herself. For two days, people on the ship would turn their heads away when Fin 2 walked by. Perhaps they felt sorry for someone who was dumb enough to fall into such a deadly trap, or perhaps they were afraid of her, afraid of someone who had attracted a monster, of someone who had openly shown her affection for the monster. And her friends were even worse, with their over protectiveness and their sympathetic eyes that said they could only speculate how much she was hurting for giving herself entirely, unreservedly to an Ardat-Yakshi. What a fool she must appear to be to everyone!

There was enough talking, Fin 2 had decided, the monster must be confronted. And if there was killing to be done, she might as well suit up and arm herself with a close-ranged weapon. But deep down she knew, armor and weapons could neither defend against nor kill lies and deceit.

She only gave a brief nod to the jailer on duty who was one of the engineers, Fin 2 recognized. The engineer opened the door for her and offered, "The last cell on the left."

Fin 2 stood still for a minute after the jailer shut the door behind her. The brig had only four cells, two on each side of a wide hallway with a single shared bathroom in between the cells on the right. Since it held no more than a couple of drunken brawlers at times, the ship didn't have any MPs or official jailers. Whoever drew the short straw took on the jailer duty after working hours. Fin 2 turned to the left. The first cell on the left was occupied, and the occupant saw Fin 2 moving towards the cell, she jumped up from the small bed and shouted through the energy field.

"Please get me out of here. I don't want to sleep next to an Ardat-Yakshi! I got drunk and blew the refueling hose. I won't drink on duty again. I swear to goddess! Could you please get me out of here? I can't sleep! Damn that Ardat-Yakshi!" The prisoner begged.

Fin 2 looked at her and kept moving slowly down the hall.

"Hey, come back! Get me out of here! Or can you kill the Ardat-Yakshi so I can get some sleep?" The prisoner shouted while banged her hand loudly on the metal bulkhead.

Fin 2 turned back and walked quickly to the first cell. "Pipe down, okay? Or I'll let the Ardat-Yakshi come in here and do whatever she wishes with you!"

Something in Fin 2's eyes stopped the prisoner short. The commando's face was flushed and her nerves on edge. Her eyes was spitting fire yet the dark circles under her eyes told the other asari that she hadn't slept much either. The prisoner shut her mouth and bit her lips, and she quickly nodded and sunk back down to her bed. No more lingering, Fin 2 took a deep breath and walked hurriedly over to the last cell on the left and hit the button that lowered the energy shield. Her actions were so sudden that when she walked into the cell, Fin 2 completely startled G.G. who had been shackled to the metal bed that was bolted to the floor. G.G. jumped onto her bed in reaction and cowered against the wall. The chains connecting to her wrists made loud sounds hitting against the bed frame.

Fin 2's angry eyes searched for signs of provocation. She only needed one sign, a reasonable cause to fuel her actions, to light her fiery anger into flame. _Just give me one sign!_ But she couldn't find any.

G.G. was handcuffed to the chains that tied to each end of the bed frame. The chains were just long enough so that she could lie flat on the bed with one arm stretched out. They must have done this so that whoever delivered her food wouldn't be afraid of being touched by an Ardat-Yakshi. There was no blanket on the bed and no pillow, only a thin layer of padding on top of the metal bed. Her face looked gaunt as though she hadn't slept since Fin 2 last saw her, and tears had left dirty streaks on her face mixed with dried blood on her lips and below her nose. Nobody had offered to take her shackles off so that she could clean herself. The jailers on duty only dared to lower the force field long enough to put down a plate of food and water bottles on the floor. No one wanted to be near an Ardat-Yakshi to risk a damnable fate.

For G.G.'s part, she had been waiting for this moment for the last two days. When Gauze jabbed her with whatever drug in the syringe, G.G. told herself not to fall asleep, too afraid that if she closed her eyes, she'd never wake up again. Dizzy was the first thing she felt as the drug brought the sensation of heat through her muscles. She fought to keep her eyes open and focus her senses inwards to listen to her own heartbeat and her increasingly rapid breathing. That very effort seemed like a heavy exertion that had sent her body trembling and words of her fellow commandos started to slow down and pull away from her. As she struggled to keep her body upright, her legs felt sluggish and her muscles that were burning up at first were now tensed up to weigh her down, like a sack of stones tied around her waist.

Disoriented, G.G. felt herself being lifted by her arms that were still bound behind her and her feet were dragging on the floor. She raised her gaze, searching in a crowd of faces, for what? She tried to focus her thoughts on one thing, a broad asari face with beautiful smile and kind eyes, lips the shape of a lily heart. But her head bowed down from the weight her neck couldn't hold, lights in the corridors and shadows of figures who made way for those who were carrying her by her arms, dancing shapes of light and shadow, then she was face down on a metal bed. Loud clicking of handcuffs she vaguely felt on her wrists and an even louder clacking of shackles and chains that several blurry figures busied themselves with next to her, and then quiet, a deafening quiet that made staying awake so much harder. She could feel a sheen of sweat on her face as she used every ounce of energy to stay lucid. She wanted to call someone's name, but her breath caught. She clenched her jaw unconsciously and with the strength left she pushed out a sound, a light grunt to her ears, she couldn't utter the name in her thoughts. And then darkness fell.

When G.G. woke up, she found herself chained to the bed. She reflexively pulled her arms, metal chains banging loudly on the metal bed. She slowly settled down in a corner on the bed, and for the first time she looked around the room. She was in a brig. The room wasn't that small, it was clean and had a cleaning basin along with a set of cleaning accessories. G.G. could feel the tear marks and dried blood on her face. She stood up slowly and moved her feet towards the cleaning basin, but the chain that tied to the far side of the bed frame tugged, stopping her from moving. She sighed and sat back down.

With her mind clearer, she called out the name she couldn't when she was drugged. "Alia." _Will she come and see me?_

G.G. ignored the stare from the person who delivered her food tray, somehow they looked alien to her, cold and unfamiliar. But those were very brief moments when she saw another soul. For two days, she sat alone with only her own thoughts as company. Was she foolish when Alia first spared a look of fondness at her and it sent her heart into a frenzy? Was she foolish after Alia was shot she kept nightly vigil by her sick bay bed? Was she dreaming after their first kiss, letting herself hope that she might find some happiness in the arms of another?

G.G. hadn't thought about the implant in the back of her neck in a very long time. She had no reason to, she was perfectly happy with work and with her training to become an elite commando. But in the past few months, she had been wondering about the implant's limits and how far she could go if she melded with Alia. The very thought of the possibility set her on edge once or twice, but the thought of losing Alia, the yawning emptiness was deeper than anything she had ever imagined. So she let her thoughts slip and her actions lapse. And then came the sobering moment when she allowed Alia to initiate a meld. She realized how easy it was to act on her feelings, how satisfying it was to push Alia against the wall, feeling her warm skin under her palm and to take in the scent that the commando's unabashed pheromones radiated out. But how deadly it could've been if it weren't for her implant. She felt ashamed, not for the trust or tenderness she had shown Alia or vice versa, but for the fact that she wanted Alia's body and mind to herself, the fact that she was aroused every time she saw the commando, and most of all what it meant to allow herself to feel the way _love_ made her feel. Had she forgotten who she was?

Should her fate be damned, she at least owed Alia an explanation. She'd tell Alia that she had never, ever once thought about hurting her. In fact she had cried herself to sleep many nights for not showing her true feelings and she had promised herself if she ever had as much as a single thought of violating the trust Alia had placed upon her, she'd kill herself first.

Waiting for two days without sleeping or eating, G.G. was relieved to see Fin 2 finally here. But when she saw the commando charging in not only in combat armor but also with a weapon, G.G.'s heart sunk. _Is she here to kill me? Does she hate me so?_

Fin 2 had a hand on her pistol, but her legs couldn't move. Watching G.G.'s fearful eyes moving from her face to her gun, Fin 2 remembered how the young asari had helped save her life on Omega and Illium and how she helped her grieving for her dead sister. The Ardat-Yakshi had plenty of opportunities to kill her, but she offered only her friendship and comfort when Fin 2 needed it the most. But still she lied about her true identity, and for an asari this lie was unforgivable. Fin 2 flared her biotics and charged at lightning speed to where G.G. was sitting.

"Why did you lie to me?"

G.G. saw Fin 2 flare her biotics but didn't expect the biotic charge. When Fin 2's face was inches to hers, G.G. shrank back against the wall, wrapping her arms around her knees and shuddered. Fin 2's hard stare made G.G. swallow.

"I… I didn't want to."

Another lie! That was the sign Fin 2 was waiting for. Without moving her face, she took out her pistol and pressed it against the side of G.G.'s head. "Have you murdered anyone?"

G.G.'s shudders had developed into a full-body tremor. Fear had worn her down in the last couple of days. Fear for her life, fear of never seeing Fin 2 again and fear that she had narrowly escaped her fate was all just an illusion. Tears flowed down on her face as she closed her eyes and she couldn't control the tremors she desperately wanted to stop.

"Look at me!" Fin 2 shouted into G.G.'s face. "I'm asking you a question. Have you murdered anyone? And don't you dare to lie to me again!"

The cold metal against her head felt suddenly inviting. Despite hiding in her youth, G.G. had found a place where she felt she belonged, where she wanted to belong. Fin 2 was the closest thing to a family since she left her mother. To an exile, a loyal friend could mean a lot more than ties of blood that turned their backs on you. She thought she had finally found a new home. But if she were to lose that, what a life to live alone in a solidary confinement that awaited her in the salarian medical facility! She much preferred a quick death to a long and agonizing one. She opened her eyes and blinked at Fin 2. Her tremors had stopped and she almost had a smile on her face.

_Is she laughing at me? For falling prey to a demon? For giving everything that was dear to me to a monster?_ Fin 2 released the safety. "Answer my question or I will blow your sick brains out!"

G.G. sat straighter and leaned into the pistol. "I've never murdered anyone. But if you want to look for a reason to kill me, don't. Just pull the trigger and see if it makes you feel better." She tightened her fists and pulled hard on the chains as though that would gave her the strength to face whatever Fin 2 decided to do with her.

Fin 2 moved back a little. Somehow the change in G.G.'s body language gave her pause. "Why did you lie to me?"

"I only wanted to live a normal life. I had a normal life until I met you. I tried so hard not to fall in love with you, but I failed to stop myself. I know now that I was only dreaming when I thought we could be together." G.G.'s stares were unwavering and she spoke the rest of her words slowly. "I never wanted to hurt you, I swear! I only wanted to be your friend. I should have never let myself fall in love. I didn't choose this life, Alia, I'm not evil and I'm not a monster."

Fin 2's hand started shaking and tears started to form in her eyes. She lowered the gun and moved away from G.G. She closed her eyes as she turned her back to the young maiden sitting on the corner of the bed. The image of G.G. resting peacefully on her shoulder after she was injured on Omega made Fin 2's heart skip. The trust the young asari had placed on her wasn't rehearsed or feigned. And after Fin 2 was shot on Illium, G.G. was at her side every night in the infirmary, when she had nightmares about her dead sister, G.G. was there to hold her and whisper words of comfort to her. After she told G.G. about Graf, the young commando wrote a long letter to Commander Bellana, her mother, and told her how her daughter almost sacrificed her own life to save an innocent stranger and how much of a torment her sister's death and her mother's undeserved blame was on such a gentle soul and how condemning and tragic that was to do damage to that gentle soul.

"You've already lost one brave daughter, do you want to lose another one who's just as brave and pure?" When Fin 2 saw her mother, the Commander had shown her the letter, expressing how much the letter had affected her and how it had opened her eyes and made her see what a wonderful daughter she had who was still alive and she was missing her while grieving the one who'd been dead. Seeing G.G.'s letter had sent Fin 2 into the bathroom crying, not entirely for grieving her dead sister, but also for a part of her that died with Graf but was brought back alive by the one who touched her so deeply. How could a monster see so deeply into her and recognize the pure love buried in the rubble? How could a demon utter those words that touched even the most stubborn mind and heart of her mother? Fin 2 shook her head.

_I can't lie to myself, I love her!_

Fin 2 couldn't stop her tears and when she turned back, she saw G.G. watching her with such pleading eyes. "Alia, please don't hate me."

Fin 2 quickly docked her pistol and walked back to stand next to the young maiden. She wrapped her arms around G.G. "I don't hate you. I love you!"

G.G. clung to Fin 2's waist and buried her head into the warm embrace. "I love you, Alia. I would die first before I hurt you. I tried to leave so that I would never risk a chance to hurt you."

Fin 2 moved to sit next to G.G. on the bed. G.G. let out a sigh of relief and leaned on Fin 2's shoulder. She was so very tired.

"Have you slept?" Fin 2 asked. G.G. shook her head.

"Have you eaten anything?" G.G. shook her head again. Fin 2 pushed G.G. away from her shoulder and held her arms, "Do you want me to get you something good to eat?"

G.G. had an embarrassed expression on her face. She hadn't gone to the bathroom for many hours as the jailers refused to take her. She asked Fin 2, "Can you get the keys to unshackle me? I need to go to the bathroom."

Fin 2 went back out to ask for the keys from the engineer jailer. The jailer hesitated. Fin 2 said impatiently. "I'll take full responsibility." The engineer wasn't going to fight a commando, so she surrendered the keys.

Fin 2 unlocked the handcuffs on G.G.'s wrists. G.G. stumbled trying to get to the bathroom across the hall, Fin 2 caught her by her arm and helped her to the room and waited for her outside. When the bathroom door opened again, G.G. moved out slowly and looked unsteady on her feet. Fin 2 didn't hesitate as she put G.G.'s arm over her shoulder and half carried her back to bed. G.G. lay down on the thin padding. "You have to shackle me."

"No." Fin 2 turned around and walked into the empty cell across the hall and took a blanket and a pillow from the metal bed and walked back to G.G. who was falling asleep. Fin 2 lifted G.G.'s head and put the pillow below it, and covered her with the blanket.

"You should shackle…" G.G. fell asleep before she finished the sentence.

Watching G.G.'s sleeping form, Fin 2 wetted a towel and started to clean G.G.'s dirty face. Slowly the familiar brilliant blue color and the contrasting white flower petal markings came to light, and when she finished cleaning, she kissed G.G.'s cheek gently. Then she took off G.G.'s shoes and made it more comfortable for her to sleep.

_Now what are we going to do?_

Fin 2 had fallen asleep on the floor next to G.G.'s bed and she woke up from noise of armor and weapons clanking as her Fin friends came into the brig. Fin 2 sat up and saw all three Fins had their pistols out and surrounded G.G.'s cell. Fin 2 put a finger on her lips. "Shhh…let her sleep. She hasn't slept in days." Fin 2 checked G.G.'s face and saw the young maiden was still fast asleep. She walked out of the cell and led her friends to the hallway. "What's going on?"

Fin 1 put her pistol away and the other Fins followed suit. "The Matriarch is back but so is that Justicar, the one who was hunting an Ardat-Yakshi."

"She knows about G.G.?" Fin 2's heart sunk. Nobody could stop a Justicar, not by asari law.

"She probably didn't know before, but the way she demanded to see the Matriarch, she probably knows now. We came to warn you."

Fin 2 put her hands on her friends' shoulders. "I can't let anything bad happen to her. She hadn't done anything to hurt me or anyone else in her life. She saved all of our lives more than once. She had plenty of opportunity to kill me, I practically offered myself to her on a platter, but she didn't. She has the implant in her neck and I believe she's no danger to us, to me. I'm willing to vouch for her in front of the Matriarch." She looked at her friends each in the eye as she explained.

Just as the four friends were talking about a plan, the brig door opened. Onyx and four other commandos walked in. "The Matriarch wants us to bring the Ardat-Yakshi to the infirmary."

Fin 2 looked back at the sleeping form and she walked back into the cell and stood in front of the bed facing Onyx, "I can't let them hurt her." Her hand rested on the holster of her pistol. Onyx stopped in her tracks and the commandos behind her put their hands on their weapons as well. The other three Fins joined Fin 2 to form a wall that blocked the way to G.G.'s bed.

Onyx gave a nod, and the commandos behind her came up and formed a line. They drew their weapons. The Fins responded by leveling their weapons at their squad leader. Onyx reasoned, "It's an order and it'll be carried out. Stand down and step aside."

Fin 2 shook her head. "It isn't right! She hasn't hurt anyone or done anything wrong. I won't let anyone torture or kill her." All four Fins spread their legs and went into battle stance.

Onyx took out her own pistol. "I will carry out the order. Stand down! Or I'll have no choice but to charge you with mutiny and arrest you all. You know I don't want to do that." The squad leader raised her voice with authority and led her commandos closer to the cell.

"Stop! Don't move any closer!" Fin 2 raised her voice as well. "Order or not, we can't send an innocent person to her doom. You want her? You'll have to get through us!" The sound of weapon safety releases filled the room, neither side wanted to give in.

A hand lightly touched Fin 2's shoulder and a soft voice said, "Please don't do this." Fin 2 turned around and saw G.G. stood behind her, barefoot and covered in the blanket. "Don't ruin everything for me. I'll accept whatever their decision is."

Fin 2 told her friends, "Keep your guns up." Then she took G.G. to sit back in bed, and her friends moved to block them from their squad leader. Fin 2 holstered her gun and knelt on the floor in front of G.G. and whispered. "I won't let anyone hurt you, G.G. I'll fight every last one of those who wants to hurt you."

G.G. smiled and the serene look on her face scared Fin 2. The young maiden cupped Fin 2's face with her hands. "You have given me things that I've never even dreamed of. There is nothing more I want to do than hold you in my arms and let you see the love I have for you in my heart and my mind. I'm not afraid of what might come because I've experienced true love. In my own way, I've given you my heart and my mind. I'll face my fate knowing that you feel the same for me."

Fin 2 couldn't stop her tears and she hadn't had this many tears since she watched her sister slip away in her arms. Why must she suffer again and again? What kind of designs did the goddess have for her that wouldn't let her keep the ones she loved? "I can't lose you." Fin 2 started sobbing.

G.G. took Fin 2 into her embrace, but it didn't stop the growing sense of doom in the sobbing commando. "Goddess, please don't take her from me." G.G. could only hold Fin 2 tightly.

Watching the pair, everyone lowered their guns. Even Onyx rubbed her forehead with her hand and sighed heavily.

Fin 2 helped G.G. put on her uniform and her boots. G.G. ran her fingers over the wrinkles on her uniform trying to smooth them out. Fin 2 took G.G.'s hands. "I wish we could vanish from this place and go somewhere nobody could find us."

G.G.'s voice sounded more mature than her age. "I've tried running and hiding. It didn't work. I'm not running or hiding anymore." She squeezed Fin 2's hands and smiled. "Whatever happens, would you stay with me until the end?"

Fin 2 tightened her hold on G.G.'s hands, her own hands shaking. "I will never let you go."


	21. Chapter 21 Angels and Demons

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty-One – Angels and Demons**

"Shackle her." Onyx nodded to her commandos. In the Blue Sabre's brig, the commandos put the chains and handcuffs on the Ardat-Yakshi.

Fin 2 protested. "Is it really necessary? She isn't going to hurt anybody!"

Onyx replied. "It's an order." Her voice was no longer firm.

The clanking noise of the chains and metal cuffs on G.G. attracted everyone's attention on the Blue Sabre as the group made their way to the med bay. Some turned their heads away while others pointed at the Ardat-Yakshi sandwiched between two columns of commandos. When they reached the infirmary, Onyx halted the group. "Wait here." She went inside to get further instructions.

The commandos stood at attention. The metal chains rustled, Fin 2 looked at G.G. She was trembling. Fin 2 gave a nod to Fin 1, and both Fins took the young maiden's arms and provided support. "I'm here, G.G." Fin 2 whispered. "Don't be afraid. I'm here."

Onyx finally came back out and motioned to Fin 2, "Take her in." The rest of the squad stood outside the door in formation.

When Fin 2 walked G.G. into the infirmary holding her arm, Aethyta turned from talking with the Chief of Medical Staff to the commandos. She walked over and took the key from Fin 2 and unlocked the shackles. "I'm sorry to have used these on you, kiddo. I didn't want the people on the ship to feel the need to take up arms to defend themselves." She tossed the metal chains and cuffs on the floor, making a loud noise and startling everyone, but she didn't spare a look at anyone else in the room. The Matriarch took G.G.'s shaky shoulders into her arms and gave her a long embrace. She said in a low deep voice, "Don't be scared, kiddo. I'm here now and I won't let bad shit happen to you. The Chief needs to do some scans and we'll figure out what the best option is for you." Aethyta then turned to Fin 2, "You can stay and we'll make sure she's all right."

The Chief put a disc on each side of G.G.'s head and another one on the back of her neck and started scanning. Puzzled at the reading on her projector, the Chief did the scans once more. "Her brain waves and neural patterns don't match that of a typical Ardat-Yakshi." As she hit the save button, the doctor turned to face the Matriarch. "I'm not a neurologist, but I've dated a couple of them in my day. And you don't date a neurologist without hearing all about how bizarre the neural patterns of an Ardat-Yakshi are. I'm quite certain what I'm seeing isn't it."

"So her neural scans look normal?" Aethyta was stunned.

"No, they most definitely don't look normal. But they don't match those of an Ardat-Yakshi."

Before the Matriarch could respond, the Chief asked G.G., "When did you have the diagnosis and which hospital did you get it from?"

G.G. had to forge her neural scans for her health checks required by regulation, but it seemed she couldn't hide that anymore. The young commando answered cautiously. "It wasn't in an asari hospital. A relative referred a salarian doctor who specialized in asari neurology."

The Chief put a hand on G.G.'s shoulder and asked again. "Let's forget about how your regular health checks always passed for a moment. It is very important that you must tell me everything you remember truthfully. Did something happen when you melded with someone and what happened that prompted you to seek help?"

G.G. nodded and gave the Chief detailed account of her knowledge meld with her teacher and the very early meld with her mother.

The Chief's brows knotted. "The teacher melded with you didn't suffer any brain damage? That's a bit unusual but not impossible if you have the disease. I'm going to contact my old fling and see what she can tell me about your scans. She's very respected in her field." She turned to the Matriarch once again. "We might hook her up to a machine to simulate a meld and capture real time data. It'll show us what her brain would do to a real mind." With that she walked out the room and went to her workstation in the adjacent lab.

Aethyta and Fin 2 both walked to where G.G. was sitting, and Aethyta asked. "Is the salarian Fin 2 caught the one gave you the diagnosis?" G.G. nodded. Aethyta turned to Fin 2, "While the Chief is checking on her data, I'll send a request to the Illium police force. Get Onyx to bring the salarian onboard. I want the Chief to have a chat with him after we have more first hand data. You stay here with G.G., I'm going to have a chat with the Justicar and Commander Shepard in our conference room."

When Aethyta came back to Illium she was greeted by shocking news. First was the attempted assassination of the Grand Matriarch on Elasa and Jamaya narrowly escaped with her life, then the Justicar they had given a ride to Illium demanded access to an Ardat-Yakshi onboard. "Has everything gone to hell while I was gone for only a couple of day?" The joy of securing funding for the Tuchanka Project by winning the winter games on Irune was fading fast as Aethyta made her way to the conference room on the Blue Sabre. She had also invited Shepard onboard to talk about Benezia and Liara, but it looked like that would have to wait.

After giving the Justicar an update on G.G.'s condition, Aethyta returned to the infirmary to find that the Chief had hooked up a melding sim machine to G.G. in her lab. Fin 2 was protecting, "Why can't I go with her? I'm not melding with her, it's no danger to me."

The Chief turned from her terminal to explain it to Fin 2, "You'll distract her. She needs to concentrate to end the meld when I tell her to. You being in their with her isn't going to help. But you can talk to her through the speaker."

Fin 2 took the position in front of the mic, "G.G., don't be afraid. I'm right here. The minute you need me, just say it. I'm coming right in, okay?"

G.G. nodded through the window, and the Chief started the machine and guided G.G. into the meld. The monitor for the sim machine started rhythmic beeps. As the beat of the beeping quickened, the Chief instructed G.G. to try and stop the meld, but G.G. didn't. The Chief tapped a few keys on her terminal and told G.G. to try and stop the meld again. G.G. only gripped the arms of the chair she was sitting in. More taps, G.G.'s closed her dark eyes and lowered her head. The Chief raised her voice, "Don't fight the implant. Listen to its queues." The beeps quickened to frenzy. When the machine finally shut down the meld, G.G. could hardly sit up, holding the back of her neck wincing. Fin 2 ran into the room and took her out of the lab and sat her in a chair in the corner of the infirmary, the Chief's assistant and Aethyta both joined her to check on G.G.

"Are you alright?" Fin 2 asked.

G.G. nodded and leaned her head on Fin 2. "Very tired."

The Chief worked on her terminal to send off the recordings from the melding machine and within minutes, Dr. Neil's voice came on the speakerphone. "My dear, this isn't the reading of an Ardat-Yakshi. It's an extremely rare condition we call ISD, Inner Synaptic Disorder, where a brain can't make connection with nerves to severe the link in melds. The scans you sent show that the implant is doing its job at setting milestones for the mind to send pulses to the brain as reminders to severe the link. The treatment method is crude, like cutting something with a dulled knife, but it works in the end. If the implant was better modified, it can work much better, help the brain make connection with nerves quicker and cut the melding links cleaner. It can potentially give the patient the complete normal ability to meld like everyone else. But the condition is so rare, nobody had studied or made any efforts to cure this. This is the first time I've seen even a crude attempt."

"It isn't the case anymore." The commandos escorted the salarian into the infirmary, and he heard Dr. Neil's last comment. "I've modified the implant to perfection. It worked for the mother. I've had her tested countless melds with the implants, it worked perfectly."

Fin 2 stood up and walked over to the salarian, "I thought you said she died during the treatment." The sudden appearance of Fin 2 from the other side of the room startled the salarian. He rubbed his neck subconsciously on the areas where Fin 2 had grabbed him and almost choked him to death back in the game room in Nos Astra.

The Chief asked, "I would like to know how the woman died of your treatment."

Dr. Neil added. "So would I."

The salarian hesitated as he looked at Fin 2, but his pride didn't allow him to dim his big achievement because of one commando. "She didn't die of the implant for her disease, that implant is perfect but where did it get me? Nowhere. No manufacturer was interested in making a product only, what, 100 people might use. I've started developing implants for Ardat-Yakshi to stem their urge to meld or at least to stop the meld before it reaches the point to kill or maim. I used the only patient that had a severe neural disorder as a test subject…"

Dr. Neil interrupted him. "That's very dangerous! To mix the neural patterns and responses, you must know that."

"I do know that. But what choices do I have? I can't get an Ardat-Yakshi as test subject. The monasteries and hospitals wouldn't send me anyone, and I'm so close to developing an implant that works for them."

G.G.'s head had been in a fog. When the meld with the machine ended, she vaguely felt supported by Fin 2 and Aethyta to the chair in the corner and a doctor shining a bright light into her eyes and scanning her with sound of omni-tool. As the fog cleared, she could hear the salarian's voice and slowly the words spoken started to make sense. When she heard his last words, G.G. stood up suddenly, she ignored the lightness in her head and shakiness in her legs, and she charged the salarian across the room and grabbed a fistful of his jacket and pushed him against the wall. "You killed my mother on purpose?"

"I didn't kill her! She signed her life to me when I made you that implant. I had the right to do whatever I wished with her. It's in the contract we signed years ago on Illium." The salarian tried to push G.G. off.

"You kept her a prisoner and then you killed her, you greedy little bastard!" G.G.'s biotics flared brightly and she moved her hands to the salarian's invitingly long neck and tightened her grip.

The salarian grabbed G.G.'s wrists, trying to fight the grip. "Enough with the neck already. What's with your asari bitches always choking people?"

Even in her weakened state, G.G. ground her teeth and tightened her jaw. She hoisted the salarian in the air by his neck as she tried to gather enough strength to throw her mother's killer into the bulkhead. The hiccupping sound from the salarian only added more determination to G.G.'s action.

The Chief instructed her assistant and looked at the commandos for help. "She can't use her biotics now. Her brain is still in a weakened state. Stop her!"

As the doctor fumbled to get a syringe out of the cabinet, Fin 2 and Aethyta tried to pull G.G. back by her arms. But the young commando's energy was so strong that it pushed both asari away. The salarian's thin lips wrinkled like scrunched up paper and his mouth puckered into a tight circle.

The doctor finally prepped the syringe and flared her own biotics to get close enough to G.G. to give her the shot, but as the young commando lifted the salarian off the ground, her biotics sparked then dissolved quickly into many tendrils of deep purple blue and finally disappeared like fine mist. G.G. dropped the salarian and tumbled backwards and fell into Fin 2's arms.

"G.G.!" Fin 2 lowered her to the ground. The young asari's eyes were turning upwards, blood trickled down her nose and her body jolted with slight tremors. The doctor quickly scanned G.G. and ordered. "Put her on that bed."

Fin 2 and Aethyta both carried the young asari to the appointed bed. "Is she going to be okay?" Fin 2 asked. The doctor gave a shot to G.G. and assured the Matriarch and the commando that their young friend would recover.

The Chief quickly flipped through the images on her projector, then she turned to the salarian. "You'd better have one of the implants you developed for her mother. Or I'll put you to the asari medical board and you can kiss your implant development license goodbye."

The salarian final stopped his short and high-pitched coughs. "If I give her the implant I lose my access to the only potential test subject."

Fin 2 took out her pistol and jammed into the salarian's chest. "How about your life for the implant?"

The salarian didn't move. "If you kill me you'll never find the implant."

Aethyta pulled Fin 2 back and asked the salarian. "What if I told you I could give you a real Ardat-Yakshi with the most deadly version of the disease? Would you give us the implant for G.G.?"

That got the salarian's attention. "And how are you going to manage that? The monastery refused my many attempts of getting one."

Fin 2 was still holding her gun. "Matriarch, request permission to splatter his brains onto that bulkhead!"

Aethyta turned to Fin 2. "As much as that would satisfy my own desires, we need him, Fin 2. G.G. might need his help. Even if he gives us the implant, he's the only one who knows how to modify it should something goes wrong."

The salarian chimed in. "Your Matriarch is very wise."

It was Aethyta's turn to push the salarian against the wall this time. "Don't push it! I'm not the wisest person and I'm half krogan. I'm this close to let my blood rage loose and smash your fucking head into pulp myself. So don't you try to push me, you fucking asswipe!"

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Inside the conference room, Shepard was learning about the Ardat-Yakshi from an asari Justicar. "So you have to kill any Ardat-Yakshi who's not living in a monastery?" Shepard had just helped Liara move some of her belongings from her apartment in Nos Astra to the Benezia when she got the call from Matriarch Aethyta. When she got to the Blue Sabre, Aethyta had an urgent matter on the ship to take care of, and Shepard was left with the asari Justicar who was also waiting for an audience with the Matriarch.

"The code demands it." The Justicar's expression was plain and even.

"Four hundred years hunting someone, that takes more than dedication." Shepard couldn't say why but a slight flicker in the Justicar's eyes told her there was more than just the ancient code this warrior was following. She chanced, "Is there a personal connection here?"

The Justicar didn't hide her surprise. There was something in the young human's tone that caught her attention. Sensitive? Yes, sensitivity stemmed from intelligence, and this one has dependable intelligence to go with her confident physical prowess. "Commander…"

"Call me Shepard." The human offered.

The Justicar tipped her head and offered, "You can call me Samara. It's an honor to meet the person who saved the galaxy. Your heroic victory against Saren and Sovereign was well known on Thessia."

Shepard's uncomfortable posture at her praise didn't escape Samara, and it fascinated her. If Shepard were an asari, she might even explore her interest in the order of Justicar, heroics without pride, an essential quality for a true warrior. But she continued, "To answer your question, it is indeed personal."

Shepard observed the Justicar when she didn't expand her explanation. "Is she someone you know or did she kill someone close to you?"

Samara didn't expect herself to be so open to this stranger, but she found herself with the desire to share the burden. "The Ardat-Yakshi I've been chasing is my daughter."

It was the human's turn to be surprised. "You must kill your own daughter?"

"The code demands it."

"But why does it have to be you?"

Samara remained silent but she couldn't hide the shock on her face. This young human asked the exact same questions that her daughter Rila had asked, the same questions she'd been thinking about since her last visit with Falere and Rila in the monastery only a few months ago.

Samara had not visited the monastery in centuries. She should have and it wasn't all because she was too busy. True, the galling confinement was the only option; even still it was her who put her two daughters here. An asari merchant ship in the same system had kindly offered her the use of their shuttle for a few days while they were waiting for a business deal to come through. Any unscheduled visit to the monastery was usually unwelcomed, but in Samara's case, they made an exception. She was, after all, a Justicar.

The monastery sat in a small valley surrounded by tall mountains draped with waterfalls year round. Outside the mountain, desert cascaded from the rocky hills and spread beyond where one's eyes could see. If it weren't for air travel, the monastery would have been the most secure prison, immune to anyone who wished to escape on foot or via ground vehicles. But once inside the valley, the deep pools beneath the waterfalls dotted the foot of the mountains, trees lined the single path in and out of the precipitous cliffs raised above the canyon. Up on top of the cliffs, large groups of aeries housed winged creatures that swooped down into the water to make their catches in the morning. The structure of the monastery, in the same color as the pale grey cliffs, was built into the mountains and its trees and the garden blended in with its surroundings. For some of its occupants, this was a sanctuary; and for others, indeed a prison.

Samara walked into the monastery unarmed, her steps unhesitating, her stare unwavering. No need for weapons here, her mere presence, collected but unmistakably commanding, was enough for the receptionist to talk meekly. "Falere has fallen ill."

"What made her ill?" The Justicar asked without slowing down her steps or turning as the receptionist led her to the infirmary.

"She had a really bad reaction to a bee sting. She's been running hot and cold, the doctor has given her something, I'll inform the doctor that you wish to talk with her." The asari pointed at a room in the large infirmary ward. Samara could tell that she was eager to leave, but the receptionist waited until the Justicar gave her an almost unreadable nod.

Standing in the room where her two younger daughters huddled in the corner bed, one holding the hand of the other. Rila sat by the bed where Falere was half sitting against pillows under a white cover, shivering visibly. When Rila saw her mother, disbelief in her eyes, but she offered no words.

Samara walked slowly to the Falere's bed, steps less assured, eyes darting between her two daughters. Falere opened her eyes, "Mom?" Her body jerked, forcing light and shattering breaths out. She reached her free hand, and Samara took it and held it between her own.

"When did this happen?" Samara asked, looking at Rila.

"Why are you here?" Rila almost asked her own questions at the same time. "Did something happen to Mirala?"

Falere's body jerked again, bigger movement than before. Her arms retreated and she held them against her body and her fists tightened. She drew up her legs and turned on her side as her body retracted. Samara blocked the edge of the narrow sick bay bed as Falera curled her body up and held her shaking daughter in her arms. "Falere, are you in pain?"

Falere's breaths still racked her but she shook her head. Rila watched Samara encircle her sister but she moved her gaze back to her mother's face. "Why are you here?"

The doctor walked in at that moment and she looked at Falere's eyes and scanned her with omni-tool. "We gave her two kinds of antibodies to lessen the allergy to the bee sting. It should work by tomorrow morning."

"Don't you have something that works faster? Must she suffer like this?" Samara's voice was still collected but the urgency was unmistakable.

"The antigen in bee venom in this valley is quite unique, we don't want to use the wrong drug on her. So we're trying a couple of things and I'm confident that the two we just give her should calm her down in a day or so."

The doctor was right, but before the drugs took their full effect, Falere's body alternated between high fevers and cold shivers. With Rila's help, Samara held her daughter when she shivered and sponged her face and chest when she ran a high fever. After the first night of relatively restful sleep, Falere asked her sister, "Can we go out to the balcony? I'm tired of looking at these walls." She turned to her mother, "Rila and I have a favorite spot where you can see the mountains across the valley and the most beautiful water pool below it. You want to see?"

Samara's face softened as she looked at Falere's hopeful eyes, but when she looked at Rila, there wasn't the same enthusiasm from her other daughter. Rila kept her gaze down for a beat, then she stood up and said to her sister. "I'll get you a hoverchair. You're not well enough to walk."

Falere watched her mother staring at Rila's back as she walked out of the room, she offered. "Don't pay attention to her, mom. You surprised her by showing up. She'll get over it. But do come with us, won't you?"

Samara offered her youngest daughter a smile. "I will, Falere. But first I'd like to talk to your doctor and get an update on your current treatment and how to prevent this in the future."

When Samara finished her conversation with the doctor, she found her two daughters on a large balcony overlooking the water pool. Rila had parked Falere's hoverchair next to a stone table and she herself leaned on the stone banister. Samara stood by the entrance of the balcony, watching her daughters, until Falere saw her. "Mom! Come and join us."

Samara stood behind Falere's chair and let her youngest daughter point at the spots on the cliffs where families of birds had settled to her. "Reminds me the sea birds we used to observe on the ocean." Samara commented. Falere nodded her agreement but Rila only stood still without looking at her mother.

Samara took out a small velvet pouch and set it on the stone table next to where Falere's hoverchair was parked. She pulled the string open and two bracelets sat in the pouch. "These were my parents' bracelets. I've kept them for a very long time. I want you two to have them."

Falere smiled and took one to look at it closely. "They're very pretty, mom. And it's blinking."

Rila didn't move but she looked at the jewelry in Falere's hand.

"They have trackers on them." Samara was about to show Falere where the small kinetic button was to turn on and off the tracker.

Rila's angry voice stopped her. "So you don't trust us and have to put trackers on us? You think it's only a matter of time before we'll turn into Mirala and escape the monastery and roam the galaxy to murder people. Do you plan to hunt us down as well?" With a huff she walked towards the exit of the balcony.

"Rila!" Falere called after her, but it didn't stop her sister's pace. Samara moved gracefully with her biotic charge and blocked Rila's path.

"Do you not wish to ever see your mother again?"

Samara's quick action only fueled Rila's temper, "I wish I was never born!" With her only exit blocked, Rila turned back and walked back to the stone railing next to her sister. Samara didn't follow her.

"It breaks my heart to see you and mother fighting like this." Falere said softly as she tugged on Rila's sleeve.

"It breaks mine to see you look like a lost kid who's afraid she'd never see her mother again when she leaves or goes on a dangerous mission. Why must she do this to you, to us?" Rila didn't look at her sister, but her voice betrayed her.

Falere whispered to her sister, "In my heart I know she doesn't want to leave us, Rila. When she said we are always in her thoughts and we are a part of her, I believe her." Rila lowered her head and moved her gaze to her sister. Falere gave her a pleading look. "I could see mother's face when she said Mirala's name, she's in pain, she's just trying not to show it. We always complain she doesn't come and see us, but when she's here, we have to see her and let her see us, Rila."

When both sisters were silent, Samara returned next to the stone table. "I'm sorry there isn't any sea nearby."

"We're confined to this place, and you worry that we don't have any oceans around here?" Rila's voice still hadn't lost its edge.

Samara cast her gaze down. She didn't know exactly why she said that, perhaps it was the landscape she observed on the approach to the monastery, perhaps the trips to the sea when she was a child had been on her mind lately. Her father loved fishing and her mother used to say fishing wasn't a hobby but an obsession for her father. Samara had been on countless fishing trips with her father.

It wasn't just the thrill of the hunt or the bounty in the traps that excited her, but the wondrous journeys through boundless ocean, the small peninsulas and islands that suddenly appeared beyond the bow of their ship as though they were put there to surprise sea-farers, the easy smile on her father's face, and the way that the ocean both soothed and helped keep rough edges intact for those who understood the language of the waves and the color of the open sky. And the language the ocean spoke to Samara was freedom. Was she only wishing that if there were an ocean and she could take a boat trip with her daughters, it might bring back a small sense of normalcy?

Maybe it was by design or maybe it was a complete accident, Samara's father had given her a grand gift in life – the ability to center herself no matter how rough things were getting around her, like the way she found her balance on the boat rocking in heavy waves. Perhaps that was the reason she was attracted to the Justicar code, one thing that could give her some sense of calm on the rough sea. The code diminuendoed the screams of the victims' loved ones, though not completely deposing of them, just enough so that she could reestablish her center of gravity and face a new dawn and a new task. Samara often wondered what her life would have been if Mirala had stayed with her sisters here.

"My father, your grandfather, loved fishing. Every chance she had, my father would take a boat out and be on the open sea. My mother often worried about her. So when they bonded, my mother had the jeweler put planet-wide trackers on these bracelets so that mother always knew where father was." Samara tapped on an invisible button, a small kinetic projection came on and called up the projection from the other bracelet. "I wanted to give these to you two so that you can keep track of each other."

Falere let her mother put one of the bracelets on her wrist, and then she took the other one and nudged Rila on her hip. Rila turned around and gave Falere her wrist and her sister put the bracelet on it. Falere tapped on the button her mother had shown her and light orange projections popped up once more on the sisters' wrists. Falere smiled at Rila, and Rila couldn't help but give her sister a smile. "You've had enough excitement out here, young lady. Let's go inside and get you a cup of tea." Rila waved a biotic hand over the controls of the hoverchair, and the chair whined briefly and started moving. Samara followed her daughters to the rec hall for a cup of tea. After the first cup, Falere dozed off in her chair. Rila and Samara stood up and moved to the window so they wouldn't wake up Falere.

"You know we are the same as Mirala, we are the worst kind of Ardat-Yakshi, just like her." Rila's voice was calmer. "We're no angels either."

"You're all angels in my eyes." Rila couldn't hide the surprise at her mother's quick answer nor at the conviction in her voice. The tone left little room for argument and the conviction was only reinforced by the firm stare that went with the words.

Seeing her daughter's near-shock expression, Samara exhaled as she looked through the windows at the ever-present mountains in the distance. The young ones couldn't understand a mother's prerogative of seeing their children in a favorable light, whatever the truth was.

The sharp edge of her tone softened, and her steady stare was less collected. "You'll never be anything less to me, even Mirala. When I chase her, when I sit in a cold and damp cargo ship, with only containers as bed and distant stars as company, I often remember our fishing trips together. How good Mirala was at catching fish, and how she goaded Falere to catch the fish rather than to swim with them, and how she taught you to spot a big one by watching a school of small fish that were being stalked."

"Why must you kill Mirala?"

"I am a Justicar. My code demands it." The stock answer came too quickly, Samara added. "The monster who calls herself Morinth isn't Mirala. She is a demon."

She didn't care to describe what her oldest daughter had turned into to her younger sisters. She wasn't that cruel. The monster whose only desire was to conquer all those whom she fancied, leaving large piles of bodies in her wake, absorbing the enticing power and raw emotions from unenlisted minds to feed the darkness within her, achieving orgasm every time. She didn't care to illustrate that dreadful village situated in between high cliffs, surrounded by dry gorges, the faces of the villagers beaten by the rigid wind, the infants crying in her arms, and fear and trepidation in young children's eyes, orphaned minutes ago by her own hands. Their parents had gone into a religious like frenzy attacking her with every tool they could find, under the order of their false goddess and savior.

_Morinth is no longer Mirala. She is a demon._

Such thoughts were necessary at moments when she needed a reminder of her Justicar code, moments when she could no longer consider herself a mother. If she couldn't convince herself that she was hunting a demon, she surely couldn't bring herself to kill her daughter. The artistry of separating one's feelings from the one they hunted wasn't a property exclusive to her order but went back to an ancient time. Hunting was for survival, and now that survival included duty, honor and for her specifically, atonement.

"But why does it have to be you?"

"I've tracked her for four hundred years. No one else would dedicate that much time in her life to track down one killer. I am responsible for her and her actions."

"And when you do catch her, you wish to erase her, like a black mark, a cancer in this family."

"I wish she had never left this place. I wish I had seen her intentions, I wish…" Centuries' of dedication to searching and chasing, Samara hadn't thought about the time when Mirala was first diagnosed with the disease.

Had she seen any prescient warnings? Did she dismiss them because she was looking through the eyes of a mother? These early thoughts had been buried so long ago as they were fruitless given what transpired thereafter. Why dwell on it when you couldn't pinpoint an event to put blame on or identify the pain that you couldn't label?

Nobody would have expected more from her, a mother who did not foresee her daughter a demon. But the cries of the victims' parents, children, siblings and friends were loud and reeling in her mind just the same. It was her who brought this body and mind to the world, and it was her who let the monster slip through her fingers for all these years. The only thing left was to confront the monster; it wasn't just her duty as a Justicar but her responsibility as a mother. The outcome was impossible to predict when she would finally confront the demon, but there would be no vengeance or victory, nor satisfaction or justice, it would only be either her kill to rid of the world a demon or her own death to bring her the final rest and absolve her of the guilt and duty. If she should die or worse, take her daughter's life, Samara felt compelled to at least share the truth with one of her daughters.

"Rila, I didn't want to tell you this in front of Falere. She's much too gentle and I don't need to darken it with this. But when I tracked Mirala to a village…"

Rila's mouth opened but no words came. The shock at the gruesome details and unimaginable violence her own sister was capable mixed with the fear for her mother's safety. Words were too slow for such overwhelming emotions. So wordlessness remained between mother and daughter. But Rila's eyes told Samara what words couldn't express. She put a hand lightly on her daughter's shoulder.

"You and Falere do not have the capacity for that kind of wickedness, or no code in this galaxy could save me from putting a bullet in my own head."

After centuries of training and meditation, Samara had mastered the art of tranquility in any situation. At moments when everyone panicked or lost sight of reality, she often produced a manner of almost goddess-like serenity and order to sooth those around her. But now, in front of her daughter, suddenly grown since the last time she saw her, her previous anger and her current shock and worry, Samara couldn't conjure up the trained and rehearsed strength that fortified her exterior, the stare at the distant mountain didn't calm her senses that were on the edge of losing control. Maybe this was the reason for her impromptu visit, to feel the presence of her daughters, different from the memory of the kids who bounced on rocking boats on family vacations, but beautiful adults, intelligent and passionate, strangers yet so intimately familiar, and to feel that old feeling of being a mother again. She hadn't felt tears on her own face in so long that it shocked her when she felt the moisture. No, more than moisture, with the saline droplets on her lips, her eyes clouded and distant mountains blurry, she actually let herself cry.

Even more shocked, Rila had not seen her mother break down since that fateful day, the day not one, not two but all three young asari in one family were diagnosed to be in the league of extraordinary company, Demons of the Night Winds. The day Rila had wondered, in her much younger mind, how could one turned into a demon overnight? When her mother dropped all her three daughters off at the monastery she cried like she cried now, trying to hide it but couldn't. Rila often felt the burden of caring for her younger sister, the burden of worrying what was happening to her older one, but she had never really saw the burden her mother carried, the heavy mountainous burden of her task as a mother who must kill her own daughter. Feeling her own tears forming, Rila leaned into her mother's hand that was still on her shoulder. "Will you be safe when you find her?"

As both of her daughters walked their mother towards the shuttle, Rila offered her parting wish, "Be safe out there, Mother." Then she stayed back to give her sister more time with their mother. She knew Falere wanted that. Falere walked with Samara to the shuttle door. "Rila isn't questioning your code, mom. She's just afraid. She's afraid that if you can kill Mirala, and if circumstances warrant it, would you kill us as well."

"They say a mother's worst nightmare is realized when her child dies before she does, they didn't know the torment of a mother who has to kill her own child. I pray to the goddess that I don't have to ever answer that question."

Back in the conference room on the Blue Sabre, Shepard asked, "Does the code demand a mother to kill her own daughter even if it serves justice? Why can't anyone else do it? What kind of code is that?"

Shepard's voice brought Samara out of the memory of her last visit with her younger daughters. She didn't realize Shepard had sat down in one of the chairs by the conference table and she had sat next to the human. Aethyta and Fin 2 had joined them and updated them on the development with the salarian.

"No one else should do it. It's my mistake to atone, it's my duty and responsibility." Samara gave the human a brief account of what Morinth had done and how dangerous she was.

"If you need my help, I'll gladly provide it." Shepard offered.

"Why would you want to help?" In the solitude of her hunt, Samara had not expected help from anybody nor had she asked for it. But this human had managed to surprise her at every turn.

"No mother should have to kill their own child. If you must do it, you shouldn't do it alone." The human replied simply.

"You would take on this dangerous task with me even though we're strangers." How Samara wished Shepard were an asari!

"If it weren't for a stranger named Feron, I probably wouldn't be here today." Shepard pointed at Fin 2 and Aethyta, "If it weren't for these strangers, the person I love the most in the galaxy wouldn't be alive today. So, yes. If you need my help, it would be an honor to provide it for a fellow warrior."

Fin 2 reminded everyone, "We need the Ardat-Yakshi alive as exchange for G.G.'s implant."

Aethyta shifted her weight uncomfortably when Shepard mentioned her as a "stranger". But she didn't have time to think about that now. They had to move fast to the next step. "How are we going to catch this Ardat-Yakshi?"

Samara's eyes never left Shepard's face. The human's intelligence and confidence couldn't hide behind the seasoned soldier exterior. If she could see it clearer, so could Morinth. "We can use Shepard as bait." An idea came to the Justicar.

"What?" Everyone in the room asked in unison.

"Morinth is attracted to those who exude confidence and talent. Shepard has what it takes to attract her. She can lure her and distract her just long enough for us to capture her."

"I usually dislike the idea of being bait, but then again I've been on the hook before." Shepard's mouth curled to one side. "So let's do it."

Aethyta shook her head, "Oh, Liara isn't going to like this."


	22. Chapter 22 Fiona Jean Shepard

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty-Two – Fiona Jean Shepard**

"No! That's out of the question!" Liara jumped out of the bed, naked still, and walked towards the bathroom.

"Liara!" Shepard had just gotten herself comfortable in the waiting arms of her lover after discussing a plan with Samara and Aethyta. Samara had tracked down a group of Eclipse mercs who smuggled the Ardat-Yakshi off Illium. Shepard would accompany the Justicar tomorrow to find out where Morinth was headed. When she got back on the SR-2, Shepard had asked Rupert to make something nice for dinner as she planned on spending the evening in the Loft with Liara before she left for Hagalaz in the morning.

"How am I going to leave you tomorrow knowing that you will walk into a trap set by the deadliest kind of my species?" Liara stopped on the stairs and turned to look at Shepard.

"I'll be fine. I've been in danger before." The soldier tried to talk but she was stopped by the asari's scowl.

"Shepard, you know I still have yet come to terms with your mission beyond the Omega 4 Relay, but at least you will have a squad of elite fighters with you, armor to protect you and weapons to take out the threat. But offering yourself up to a deadly Ardat-Yakshi is no different from putting a bullet in your head right now! I will not accept that!" Liara didn't know where she was going, but moving away from the bed was easier to make her point. She took Mimi from the top shelf where the cat was sitting and staring at the space hamster in its cage. With the cat in her arms, Liara walked back towards the bed. "Whose idea was this?"

"The Justicar's. But everyone agreed with the plan." It seemed that Aethyta's prediction was right on the money.

"Aethyta approves of this?" Liara didn't blame a stranger for soliciting Shepard's help, but she was surprised that her closet ally didn't understand how important Shepard was to her.

Shepard got out of the bed and took the cat from Liara, "Don't strangle Mimi when you're mad at the Matriarch. She did say you wouldn't like it."

"Damn right, I don't like it!" Liara was surprised at her own raised voice. Ever since they took down the Shadow Broker, Liara had finally accepted the fact that she had her Shepard back, both as a soldier and a lover. As a soldier, Liara understood what Shepard must do even it meant facing the toughest enemy the galaxy had ever seen before. But as a lover, her old self would had preferred running away, just the two of them, to some small colony on a remote planet and living out their lives quietly. The old Liara was good at running and hiding in remote digs, away from her troubles and finding solace in her passion. But she knew the old Liara was no longer here. From that very first hesitant moment of letting go, Liara started fortifying a new concept: helping Shepard in anyway she could and asking for help from anyone who would lend a hand. But her lover seducing a deadly Ardat-Yakshi? She would have sooner imagined Mimi T'Soni growing wings and flying away. The absurdity would have been laughable if it were for how dangerous the act would be.

Shepard put the cat down on the bed, and Mimi meandered to the head of the bed and plopped herself down against the pillows. Shepard took Liara's hands, and led her to sit down at the foot of bed together. "Liara, I watched your mother almost kill you while she was under the Reaper indoctrination. I knew she'd be devastated if she had hurt you. Here's a mother who is caught in between doing the right thing and killing her own daughter, I can't just stand by and not do anything to help."

"But why can't anyone else do it? Why does it have to be you?" Liara didn't give in but when she looked up at Shepard's face, she saw something else there. "Shepard, I know that face. What else are you not telling me?"

Shepard lowered her head and sighed. Liara turned and took the soldier's shoulders. "Tell me what happened."

"I got a message from Hannah." She could feel the moisture coming in her eyes. She looked down again and tapped on her omni-tool. A written message popped up in projection, and Shepard angled it so that Liara could read the content.

"Fiona Jean Shepard, this is your mother. I had to hear the news of your return from Steven Hackett. How dare you assume that I would not want to see my daughter the minute I hear she's alive? How dare you assume that I would put my career before my daughter? I know you, child. That's what you're thinking and you can just stop it! Find a place where we can meet, if it has to be in the Terminus, so be it. Find a place and time so that I can see my little girl, or you'll get the ass whooping you haven't seen since you were 7!

P.S.: Anderson told me the circumstance in which you came back, you must be as naked as they come and I know you'll hate to wear whatever Cerberus gave you. I've brought a locker full of your favorite tank tops, shirts and pants to Anderson. He said he'd send it to you.

P.P.S.: Stop feeling guilty for coming back and stay safe. Think how much you mean to me and how much you mean to your blue girl.

P.P.P.S.: Kiss your blue girl for me and tell her that she still owes me some blue grandbabies.

Your mother, Captain Hannah Shepard"

"Oh, Shepard! What are you going to do? You have to see her." Liara's own tears were coming, she missed Hannah and she knew how much Shepard had missed her mother.

"Yeah, I'll figure something out." In the presence of her lover, Shepard decided to let her tears fall. Liara put a hand on the side of Shepard's head and pulled her head to her shoulder and held it there for a while. "You know I have to do this, I want to do this." Shepard murmured when Liara kissed her head.

"Then I'm coming with you and you can't stop me." Liara put a smile on her face.

Shepard wiped the tears off her own face and smiled back at the asari. "That so?" Shepard's eyes turned into half moons and her mouth curled up. That smile still managed to stun Liara even after all this time. The smile that could make Liara forget every trouble in the world for a moment, and forget everything in the world for just one joyous moment. Liara smiled widely and remembered the first time she saw that smile on her soldier's face.

It was during a ground mission on a Mako ride in the SR-1 days. The Mako had lost its traction and fell off the side of the mountain, flipping its massive body, dragging rocks and pebbles along the way. When the tank finally landed back down at the foot of the mountain where it had started climbing an hour before, Liara gripped hard on the harness that strapped her to the seat and let out short breaths. Never mind Shepard's excited shouts and Ashley's imitation of someone called Tarzan at the top of her lungs as the Mako tumbled back down, Liara could only focus her senses on how hard she was holding onto the straps while doing her best to fight the waves of nausea that threatened to explode.

When the dust settled and two soldiers' laughter died down, Ashley unfastened her harness and walked back from her shotgun seat. She opened the door and saw that the color of Liara's face had turned into something that didn't look blue anymore. She gave a dry cough that informed the driver of the Mako that she had done it again, sickened someone with her driving. "Yup, another one bites the dust." Then Ashley patted Liara on her shoulder lightly, "Hey doc, if you're going to barf, better do it outside the Mako, or you'll never hear the end of it from Garrus." Then the Marine jumped out of the tank herself. "Skipper, I'm going to give the Mako a check-up!" And she disappeared from Liara' view.

The word "barf" almost sent Liara over the edge. She shut her eyes tightly and pursed her lips to fight down the new waves in her stomach. She heard Shepard unbuckling her own harness, and when Liara opened her eyes again, Shepard was suddenly kneeling in front of her. "Liara, are you okay?"

"Why…" Liara took short breaths as though not to rattle her stomach with too much body movement. "…must climb the mountain?"

Shepard had decided to use Mako's rockets to take out a small but sharp rise up on the top of the cliffs so that the tank could climb over it, but their latest tumble suggested that they needed a couple of more shots. "If we went around the mountain, it'd take us 2 days. This way, we'll get you back on the Normandy within a couple of hours, hopefully." Shepard put her hands on the asari's shoulders and joked. "Then you can finish your breakfast and look up on the Extranet what real 'scrambled eggs' means."

Liara shut her eyes tightly once again and felt her stomach turning and wrenching at the same time. "Shepard," She stopped again, taking more short breaths, "Please do not mention food right now."

Shepard laughed, her hands shook Liara's shoulders, Liara moaned. Shepard unbuckled Liara's straps and extended a hand, "Come on, let's get you out of here and get some fresh air." Liara hesitantly took Shepard's hand, and moved slowly out of the tank. Fresh air did help, but only a little. Looking at the asari hunching and holding her stomach, color still pale, Shepard offered. "Maybe you'll feel better if you barfed."

Liara took a few quick steps away from the Mako and dropped down on her knees and emptied her stomach contents. Shepard was once again kneeling next to her with a bottle of water. Liara took the water and rinsed her mouth. Shepard was right this time, she did feel much better. She stood back up and straightened her body. Vibrant blue started to return on her face.

Shepard walked her back towards the Mako, "I didn't mention food this time."

"But you said the word 'barf'." A smile seeped through Liara's face.

Shepard laughed, "Sorry." Her voice was a little nasal but smooth, almost musical; her face still kept a smile after the laughter, so open, light dancing in her eyes, mouth curled up, one side slightly higher than the other. As though magic trick had been performed, Liara had completely forgotten the agitation in her stomach and she smiled back at Shepard.

"You are forgiven."

Looking at that same smile presently, Liara answered her lover who moved closer and kissed her on the lips. "I think so, Fiona."

In a flash, Shepard pushed Liara down on the bed and straddled her lover between her knees. "You'll pay for that!"

Liara let out a giggle remembering how many times Shepard had given her the "talk" and warned her never call her by her first name. "Go ahead, give me your best shot, Commander Fiona Jean Shepard!"

Shepard drove her face into Liara's neck and found the ticklish spot and started to lick it with her tongue while holding down Liara's arms.

A couple of hours later, the ship's comm beeped, and Rupert Gardner's voice came on. "Commander, I've dropped off a tray of freshly cooked dinner at your door. I hope you and your lasagna lady friend enjoy the brandy Dr. Chakwas asked me to pass on."

"Thank you, Rupert! I… we appreciate that." Shepard couldn't hide a smile as she held Liara in her arms, both naked after embraced eternities and the cat was holding down Liara's ankles and staring at them both.

"Don't mention it. Oh, tell Liara her cooking homework is due as soon as she gets back to the Big Whale."

Liara laughed, "Yes, Rupert! You shall have the best baked ziti to taste."

"Okie dokie, little lady." Rupert cut the comm.

Shepard laughed this time. "Little lady? Does he know how old you are?"

"I will find the appropriate time to inform him of that." Liara's smile turned mischievous.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Up on the high towers of the defense canon platform, Aethyta eyed her batarian escort whom Aria sent to bring her. She was not only annoyed when she paid a courtesy call to her old friend to let her know that they'd come to Omega to help a Justicar hunt down an Ardat-Yakshi only to find Aria was already fully aware that they were coming. _Does she have spies on Illium as well?_ But Aethyta also knew the pirate queen was up to something when she heard Aria's message the escort played on his omni-tool. An old sneaky feeling crept up, Aethyta had been here before, doing a favor for Aria, and she hadn't forgotten the time she'd almost gotten herself killed while saving the then helpless and naive maiden.

The long elevator ride to the top of the defense tower didn't calm Aethyta's rising agitation, and when the elevator door opened, she saw Aria in full bright red armor.

"Matriarch Aethyta." Aria waved them over.

"Don't you matriarch me, missy! You're not going to rope me into one of your petty territorial pissing contests in the drug trade." Aethyta walked by several guards towards Aria who was standing on the small balcony just below a turret gun. Aethyta walked by the batarian she had head butted when she was tracking Liara and Feron, and she paused for a moment. "How's the nose?"

Aria laughed, "Oh, how I've missed you Aethyta!" She nodded to a guard and watched him set up a large telescope with a retractable stand. "And relax. I'm conducting my own business, you're just here to observe."

"Relax?" Aethyta's eyes never left Aria's face. She knew for certain the pirate queen was up to something and she was brought here for a reason. "You think I was born yesterday, you think I haven't seen you in your maiden diapers…"

"Thyta!" Aria's voice went up, she hadn't been embarrassed in front of her men in a long time, but she calmed herself down. "You came to see _me_."

"Yeah, as a courtesy call for helping a Justicar track down an Ardat-Yakshi who's hunting and killing on your turf." Aethyta ignored Aria's tone. She wanted to get out of here and join her commandos and Shepard. Though she didn't have specific role in the operation, they might need her head for both thinking and butting.

"A Justicar on Omega, that's like a hungry vorcha at a varren meat buffet. She's going to be busier than the most popular dancer in Afterlife on a payday. She isn't going to cause me any trouble, is she?" Aria would have given more thought to the fact that a Justicar was not only traveling outside asari space but she actually was on Omega. She might have started a betting pool with the batarian gambling syndicate. Her last bet on the Archangel paid off handsomely. But not today. Today she had something much more important that needed her attention.

"Relax, Aria. She isn't going to blow up your precious little rock. She's only here for the Ardat-Yakshi." Aethyta was getting impatient.

"Oh, that human girl was killed by an Ardat-Yakshi?" Aria's voice had chills, "Thank goddess they are mules, sterile. This is why I picked a turian as mind donor, didn't want to…"

Aethyta's stare turned sharp. "Aria, if you say that fucking word, I swear I'll toss your ass over that railing."

Aria was amused at her friend. Aethyta would pick a fight with anyone who uttered the word "pureblood", yet that very word had kept her away from her own bondmate and her own kid. Many times Aethyta had told her to let Liselle know her father or at least give her a stepfather, and the advice came more often after Liara was born. Aria had wondered more than once what would have happened if she and Aethyta had gotten together.

Aria always had a soft spot for Aethyta, though not sexually. The few times in their many centuries' friendship they tried having sex, none ended satisfactorily. Two fiery minds couldn't mix together, one tried to dominate the other and neither would give in. Aethyta had put it as "too feisty, much prefer an easy fuck", and Aria agreed with her. She wondered if she had tried that with Aethyta when she was still a maiden with a more submissive mind, they would've had a chance. But her heart belonged to someone else then, the only person she had ever given her heart to and Aethyta was the only close witness to her falling madly in love then falling completely apart when her love died. She also wondered, after Aethyta met Benezia, who was the top and who was the bottom. She much preferred Aethyta as a friend, the Big Sis she never had and always wanted. It seemed that Aethyta always chided her for one thing or another in their conversations, but when she needed someone to watch her back, Aethyta was one of the few, very few, that she could trust.

Aria walked to the scope by the railing and she beckoned Aethyta to join her. "Yes, this is a drug deal. But I wouldn't bother to suit up and climb all the way up here personally for drug deals that are coming through Omega everyday. I'm here because…" She took a deep breath, "Thyta, Ox is here."

Aethyta could feel her blood rage brewing, "Ox is here? On Omega and doing this deal?"

Aria ignored Aethyta's series of rhetorical questions and explained. "The red sand is only worth a fifth what she's paying. I don't know who is the real money but Ox is here for a reason. The trail should be easy to follow, when the goods change hands again, we'll know what's really being traded here."

"Never mind the deal! You know how long I've waited to kill that bitch!" Aethyta had to calm herself before stepping up to the scope as Aria moved aside. "She's using a remote area to land on Omega not be seen, but she's cunning, she had to suspect you might get the wind this."

"I have to stay hidden and it's to our advantage that she doesn't know that you're here." There was no question in Aria's mind that Aethyta would join her on this operation now. They both had score to settle with Ox. "I know which warehouse the deal will go down in. We'll wait for her there."

Ox was a towering asari with whom Aethyta fought when she was trying to save Aria's life hundreds of years ago. A giant among her species, Ox had the physique and power to take down anybody in hand-to-hand combat thanks to her grueling training with asari commandos at a young age, but she also possessed a wicked mind that was more cunning than anyone in the mercenary trade. When she arrived on Omega, she saw how lucrative the drug trade was and she wanted to rule that world. But there was only one slight problem: Rouge, Aria's lover and Aethyta's best friend.

Rouge was unlike anyone Aria had ever met before, prominent forehead, high cheekbones and large eyes. A face with a dominant force but it could also produce a smile that was so seductive that made Aria weak at the knees. When Aria met Rouge, the elder asari had already established herself as the leader of a drug trafficking group on Omega. Rouge had been a childhood friend of Aethyta as their krogan fathers belonged to the same clan. The two half-krogan kids grew up together, drinking ryncol and practiced head butting at very young age. When Rouge decided to come to Omega she asked Aethyta to come along, and Aethyta did. But Aethyta never developed a passion for drug trafficking as Rouge did. She preferred freelancing and did jobs when she felt like it instead of taking orders from someone else. Though their day jobs took them to different parts of Omega, the two closest friends often met up at night drinking and swapping stories of their adventures at one of the seedy bars in the market district. The drinking games they played often saw either one of them under the table or both stumbling back home piss drunk. It was one of those nights Aria ran into a completely drunk Rouge being harassed by two vorchas who were looking for an easy mark.

Rouge had won the drinking contest that night and told Aethyta she could make it home on her own, but in a dark corner behind a meat shop dumpster, Rouge threw up and then sat on the curb falling asleep. One of the vorchas brought out a metal claw from his back strap and poked the drunken asari to see if she was still alive. The other one hissed. "Drunk, 'tis our lucky day. Take her." The sharp claw caught Rouge under her chin and woke her up. As the asari watching several sets of blurry vorcha teeth dancing in front of her eyes, she tried to stand up only to fall back down. The two vorchas each grabbed her arm and the one with a sharp claw threatened. "Kill you with blade, come home with 'thus." The asari tried to yank her arms from their grasp but she couldn't. She flared her biotics but couldn't form enough power to push off the two strong bodies that sandwiched her.

A seductive voice came from behind them, "Hey boys, the mini bar on the corner is offering free dances by asari dancers. Why bother with a drunkard when you can have a free show and maybe even a free lap dance?"

The two vorchas turned around, a young asari in a long coat held out a handful of chips. "You not lying? They not hate 'thus?"

The young asari tossed the chips at the vorchas and they caught them. "Not if you have these. They'll buy you some good times, I swear."

The vorchas promptly dropped the drunken asari on the ground and hurried to the mini bar that promised a fun night. The young asari picked up Rouge's arm and dragged her up. "We have to hurry. They might come back when they find out those chips are tokens for garbage pick up."

When they got back to Rouge's apartment, the drunken asari kept throwing up most of the night. The young maiden stayed with her in the bathroom, handing her water and rinsing towels for her. In the morning, when Rouge got up and readied herself for work, she found the young maiden sleeping exhausted sleep on the sofa, still in her dancer's outfit and covered in a long coat. That was the beginning of a love affair between a young asari dancer and an older asari drug lord.

Rouge was the one who introduced Aria to Omega, the real Omega. She took the young maiden to the mines and told her, "This is the heart of Omega." Aria was mesmerized. The mines spoke something deeply to her, the loud thumping of the drilling machines, the sizzling eezo in the refinery tanks, and the workers bantering at each other. She could walk the maze like tunnels forever down here, feeling the energy and smelling the sweet eezo that burned her nasal passage ever so slightly and reminded her of a bakery she loved on Thessia that put more eezo in their danishes and breads. Aria found herself coming to the mines often during lunchtime, bringing sweet treats to the workers on their lunch breaks, bribing them to show her the controls that operated the drills and enormous conveyer belt full of eezo ores.

Rouge could only smile at Aria's passion for the Omega mines. When Aria told her that she'd one day run the mines, the elder asari replied. "Ma petite bleu, with your smarts and passions, you'll run all Omega one day." To which Aria could only laugh. What a silly idea that would be? Rouge then showed Aria another part of Omega, "The mines are the heart of Omega, the drug trade is the blood line. If you want to rule Omega, first you have to rule the drug gangs." Rouge took Aria under her wing and showed her the ins and outs of drug trafficking. Aria was an assistant to Rouge at first but quickly became an invaluable partner, and their group grew larger and larger.

After Rouge met Aria, she stopped playing drinking games with Aethyta every night and started spending more time with her lover. Aethyta began taking jobs off Omega, jobs that paid better, jobs at locations that didn't have smell of overnight vomit and vorcha shit on the streets, places like Illium, transport ships, Thessia and even the Citadel. Aethyta would occasionally come back to Omega and catch up with her oldest friend and her new girl. The pair seemed very much in love. Aethyta would bring Rouge some new mods she acquired on her latest jobs for her friend's favorite shotgun and Rouge would invite Aethyta over to taste Aria's newly learned recipes from the workers at the mines.

One day their lives all changed and the person who changed it was Ox. Aethyta was on her way back to Omega after receiving a message from her old friend asking her to play bodyguard for Aria for a few days while she dealt with a new threat to her group. But when Aethyta arrived, a grief-stricken young maiden who looked like she'd been crying her eyes out greeted her. "What the hell happened, Aria?"

"Ox killed Rouge." Between her sniffles, Aria told Aethyta how Ox set up a trap and ambushed Rouge and how they'd taken her to an abandoned warehouse and beaten her to death. Aria took Aethyta to the morgue to see Rouge's body and told her that Ox was threatening to come after Aria next.

Aethyta took action immediately, gathering intel on Ox and getting mercs to help her go to war with the asari who took her best friend and threatening to kill the young girl. Aria insisted on coming along and a few gang members who were loyal to Rouge came as well. They caught up with Ox when she was storming Rouge's warehouse for the drug shipment that just came in the week before, and the firefight ended with Aethyta fighting Ox hand-to-hand.

This was no doubt what Ox had planned; she did her homework and knew about Aethyta. She had her mercs hold off Rouge's men and Aria while she lured Aethyta into a courtyard behind the warehouse and proceeded to practice her biotic hand-chop moves and choking techniques on the smaller asari. But she underestimated Aethyta who learned how to fight dirty from her krogan father. When Ox had her in a chokehold, Aethyta ignored the lack of air in her lungs, instead she focused her strength on her foot and swung it in between Ox's legs. It wasn't as effective as it would have been with a krogan, but it made Ox drop her hands. Aethyta went on her own offensive, shooting biotic waves that meant to rip any solid matter into pieces. Then she charged the big asari, head first, aiming squarely at her enemy's nose. Blood spilled from both Aethyta's forehead and Ox's nose, but Aethyta didn't stop there. Her father taught her how to use her legs when facing a large opponent and made her practice against the krogans. Aethyta hopped on a stack of crates and activated the mod in her boots that hardened the tip of the boots. She jumped off from a higher point and turned her body in a roundhouse kick that sent both a biotic wave and her hard boots into Ox's body. Ox flew into the metal barrier at the edge of the courtyard. When Aethyta landed back on the ground, she charged again, but this time Ox was ready. She jabbed a dagger into Aethyta's arm and pulled the trigger on the pistol against Aethyta's side.

"You cheating bitch! You said this was hand-to-hand." Aethyta fell on her knees.

"I lied." Ox struggled to get back on her feet and held the pistol to Aethyta's head. A biotic wave ripped the weapon out of her hand, and Aria and the reinforcements were now in the courtyard. Ox saw none of her men had survived, and she leapt over the barrier.

"Thyta!" Aria was in a panic. She helped Aethyta lean on the wall. Blood had seeped through her armor below the knife and Aethyta was holding her side and wincing.

"Go! Go after her!" Aethyta pushed her shotgun into Aria's hands and pointed at the direction where Ox disappeared.

"No, I can't just leave you! You have a knife stuck on your arm!" Aria's voice was shaking. "I have to get you to a clinic."

Aethyta knitted her brows and bit down her jaw. She pushed herself up and stood on shaky legs. "Aria, if we don't get rid of her now, she'll come back and hunt us down and kill us both." Holding her injured body together, Aethyta limped toward the exit. Aria picked up Aethyta's shotgun and followed her. As they came back into the warehouse, they saw Ox taking a large case, Rouge's latest red sand shipment, and rushing to a skycab parked outside. Aethyta started running and Aria followed behind her.

Skycar chases were apparently the norm on Omega. As Aethtya twisting the steering wheel to make shortcuts, the skycars that she cut off didn't even bother to honk their horns. Aria held tightly onto her seatbelt and shut her eyes every time Aethyta was about to ram into a car head on. Aethyta positioned her car on top of Ox's and drove it nose down and pushed Ox's car out of the traffic flow. One side of Ox's car was smoking, and she landed it near a restaurant patio and jumped out with the large heavy case under her arm and disappeared into the crowd.

Aethyta landed her car next to Ox's but instead of getting out, her head fell to the side of her seat.

"Thyta!" Aria jumped out of the cab and went around to the driver's side and opened the door. Aethyta's body fell sideways into Aria. Aria looked around and saw a waiter staring at them in shock. "Get a fucking ambulance, you moron!"

She dragged Aethyta out of the cab and propped her up against the side of the car. Aria started to unclasp Aethyta's armor. "Thyta, stay with me. Help's on the way." When she took Aethyta's upper body armor off, Aria gasped. Blood covered Aethyta's arm that still had the short blade in it, and the bullet hole on her side was spitting blood. The ichor flow smeared all over her mid-section. Aria ripped her own shirt underneath her armor and tied it around Aethyta's bullet wound.

The waiter came back with a pack of medi-gel and informed Aria that he had called an ambulance, then he handed Aria a small bottle of alcohol. Aria squeezed the gel onto both Aethyta's wounds with trembling hands and broken words. "Please don't die, Thyta. Not you too, I can't..."

Aethyta opened her eyes. "Are you crying, Aria?" She took a deep breath, "There is no crying on Omega, Aria! So stop it! I'm not going anywhere, that bitch is going to see the face of goddess before I do. You can count on that!" She took another breath and then pulled out the short knife blade from her arm and let Aria wrap it with another piece of her shirt. Aethyta took two large swigs from the bottle and then poured it on her knife wound. The sharp pain made Aethyta drop the bottle as she grabbed hold of the edge of the skycab door. She muffled a long scream as her legs lifted her body, then settled back down.

"Aethyta!" Aria didn't know what to do to help her friend. She gripped the side of Aethyta's neck as it jerked upwards in pain, and she caught the bottle her friend dropped. When Aethyta stopped her rapid breathing she nodded to the worried young maiden.

"It could use more sterilization." This time, her hand gripped on the edge of the door as she readied herself for the pain.

"More?" Aria hesitated. Aethyta nodded, teeth still grinding. "How much more?" Aria didn't want to do this.

"All of it." Aethyta pushed out the words in between deep breaths. "Don't know where that knife's been." She gave Aria another reassuring nod and looked away from her arm.

"Fuck!" Aria bit her lip and turned the bottle upside down right on top of Aethyta's arm and watched her friend's body shaking in pain. She dropped the empty bottle and held her friend's face with both hands.

When Aethyta's pain finally subsided a little, she gave Aria a weak smile. "Good job, kiddo!"

Aria let go of Aethyta's face and dropped on the ground next to her friend. "You're fucking durable, Thyta!" She sat there holding Aethyta until the ambulance came.

To prove Aethyta wrong, Ox never came back to hunt them. Perhaps she had other things that occupied her attention or perhaps it was because of Aria's rise as top ruler of Omega. Ox had created wounds no passage of time could heal for either asari, and Aethyta suspected the cunning mercenary might have known that. Then it came back to the question of why she was here and what deviousness she was planning now. Aria's first thought was their archenemy had come back for her precious Omega.

Across the alley way from the small and unremarkable warehouse, Aria and Aethyta sat in one of the rooms that belonged to a seedy hotel. The curtain was drawn back so that they had a full view of the warehouse and Aria's men were monitoring both ground traffic as well as communication waves. They'd wait here until Ox showed up and watch the vid feed that Aria's men had set up the minute Aria heard about this location.

"What's with the color?" Aethyta pointed at Aria's bright red armor.

"It's for Rouge. When I face the bitch she'll see why her guts are being spilled." Aria stood up and started pacing. Too many memories that she had tried to bury so long ago and too much emotion was flooding back with this familiar scene: she and Aethyta were about to fight Ox again. But Aria knew she wasn't that scaredy-cat anymore, she had power and she had learned her lesson.

Aria remembered what Ox said to her when she informed her that she had killed Rouge, "You think you can be ruthless but you don't understand what it is to be ruthless." That was the first lesson Aria learned how to survive and thrive on Omega, to be ruthless.

A beep on Aria's omni-tool informed them of movement. "She's approaching." Aria's watchdog whispered through the comm.

Aethyta and Aria kept themselves out of sight of the street while watching the large asari and her men went into the warehouse, Aria ordered. "Nobody moves until the seller shows."

Not long after, the seller and her men arrived. Both Aria and Aethyta gasped. "Liselle?"

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Morinth was not on a hunt tonight. She had just killed Nef and she often spent a few days basking in the sweet after taste of her conquest, her success, and most of all her sweet orgasm. She often wondered during this "cool down" period if this was nature's way of regulating her sexual metabolism, preventing her drives and desires from burning out. The smell of her old lover still lingered, on her skin, on her clothes and her breath, not to mention on her mind. She could almost "taste" the colors and shapes in Nef's mind, every delicious morsel of creative thought that had ever appeared in the sculptor's imagination was laid bare, waiting for her to explore and consume. But it was Nef's eagerness that burned brightest in her mind. Like a greedy kid in a free candy store, Morinth wandered in Nef's mind, deeper and deeper, taking her time and picking and choosing which piece of candy to taste first.

This was why Morinth disliked the act of killing. There were times when she had to kill out of necessity as a way of acquiring a new lover. A jealous boyfriend, a controlling husband, or whoever stood in the way. These kills were dull and beneath her. Sure they gave her the power of consuming the minds of her victims, but none of the euphoria of an orgasm offered up by a devoted lover. The all encompassing pleasure made her effort of seduction worthwhile. Her only regret was that it was too brief even though she tried to linger for as long as she could. As her power grew, her lovers' minds gave in quicker and quicker. She told herself that her next target had to possess a very strong mind. When the rush of orgasm dissipated, the Ardat-Yakshi's mind turned a page. Now it was cold, decisive and flawless. She took everything she had mapped out during her wanderings, in the specific order she had planned, all the while ignoring the increasing confusion, shock and resistance from Nef's mind.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Perplexed at first, "I thought you loved me." Then came the cold realization.

Questions and comments Morinth had heard countless times during this stage of the meld. The only thing she could offer was a cold smile.

When the final rush of absorbing the other mind was over, Morinth let the young woman's body fall on her sofa. Her own body that was burning up moments ago during the final wave of her orgasm had turned cold, now she'd spend the next few days replaying the entire affair with emphasis on the last meld, while waiting for the lingering sensation to disappear, and anticipating her urge to hunt again. And when it did return, the nerves in her body would reignite and her eyes would turn from pale blue to deep indigo. She would reopen up her mind and shed preconceptions and look through a new lens into a new soul.

But not tonight. Tonight, she wanted escape. She wanted to escape the stifling air in her apartment crowded with trophies of her past conquests. She wanted to just relax, to be a tourist, gawking at those who aimlessly looked for love where there was none or a quick one-night stand that they'd regret the next day in the sobering morning light. It was fun as a professional to watch these amateurs make the same mistakes over and over yet never learn from them. In the darkness of the VIP room in Afterlife, Morinth smiled as she sipped her drink slowly in her corner booth. But a figure attracted her eyes.

A human female in a hooded sweatshirt sat down at the bar, oblivious of passing stares, propositions and swaying hips of the asari dancers. Perhaps she was waiting for someone to show up, not by appointment but in an appearance of serendipity. Morinth observed the way the human glanced at the door once in a while and swiped a quick gaze around the booths and dance floor. She looked familiar. In the darkness, Morinth couldn't be certain, but when three turians approached the human and the human turned around to face them, Morinth had a clear view of the human's face and it belonged to the famous Commander Shepard.

A smile spread on Morinth's lips. She could feel a faint tingling sensation in her nerves. This had never happened to her before. The early arrival of the hunting urge coursed through her body, the Ardat-Yakshi blinked her eyes as she could see the color of the room changing.

_I might have some fun tonight yet._

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for reading! I know there's a lot of AU content in the story and I'd love to know if you're enjoying that, or if you'd rather see more of Shepard, Liara and the canon cast of characters. PM me, write a review: let me know!


	23. Chapter 23 The Sea Hunter

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty-Three – The Sea Hunter**

Three turians stood behind Shepard in the VIP room of Afterlife, two were drunk enough that they slurred their words, but the leader of the pack was starkly sober. "We saw what you did to the guy who bothered the dancer."

Shepard had tossed a turian drunkard into a wall because he was harassing a dancer earlier. The exaggerated drama was for Morinth's benefit but she enjoyed doing it nonetheless. Looking at her visitors, Shepard unconsciously flexed her forearms and tightened her fists. "You wanted to take revenge for your friend? Three against one, that sounds fair."

The sober one grabbed each of his friends who seemed to have trouble standing to keep them facing Shepard, "No, he's our boss, an ass. We just wanted to thank you for what you did and maybe buy you a drink."

Shepard relaxed her arms and hands. But before she could respond, a sultry voice came from behind the turians. "Boys, how about I buy you all a round and you leave the Commander alone?"

Shepard was surprised how quickly Morinth approached. _So she recognized me._ Samara had suspected that Morinth would recognize Shepard. The news of her triumph over Sovereign had been broadcasted everywhere including in the Terminus Systems and Shepard's face was plastered on all news channels. While Samara thought that it could be an advantage, it only amplified the peril Liara felt for Shepard. It was bad enough to think Shepard had to seduce someone into a meld with her, but to lure an Ardat-Yakshi with her fame and her charisma was preposterous, and not mention the part about death. Liara had given Shepard her old dog tags for good luck, "These went through your death and my almost death. Hold on to them and use them as your connection to me." Liara held onto Shepard's hands as tightly as Shepard held onto those tags, no amount of comforting words from the soldier could ease the asari's worries.

Shepard touched the tags in her pants' pocket then she turned to Morinth. "I'm at a disadvantage here. You obviously know who I am."

"Morinth. I'm a… galaxy traveler." Morinth leaned her hip on the counter of the bar and moved her gaze up and down on Shepard while ordering drinks for the turians. This one knew about killing, Morinth took in everything she saw, this Spectre knew about triumphant, but most of all she knew the feeling of power. The Commander showed that power in the way she handled her weapons in those sturdy arms, and she must have looked magnificent on battlefield with that straight back and powerful legs. Morinth had seen footage of the award ceremony after the Battle of the Citadel, the glittering words and excitement of her drama-filled adventures, this Spectre knew the real meaning of being a victor. Not unlike herself, Morinth reasoned. Each conquest was a reward yet no history would record her achievements in glittering words and no one would see the perfect talent hidden in her magnificent mind. While others viewed her condition as an affliction, she thought of it as a talent, or "artistry in hidden beauty" as she would like to call it and she had mastered that art. She felt the similarities between them, and that intrigued her.

"What is it like to be a hero of the Citadel?" Morinth thought the words sounded alien on her lips, dull and too fawning for her liking. But she had to start somewhere.

"Nothing too special." Shepard took the approach Liara had proposed- let the prey come to you. Pretending she was waiting for someone else was a part of the performance.

More intriguing! Morinth almost had a smile on her face, this one hated the dull and fleeting attention too- she must be a true killer. She invited the human to join her. "I'm guessing you hope someone will show up tonight, someone you wish to meet but don't want to invite. What do you say if I keep you company until that person shows?"

Morinth's pace was quicker than Shepard had expected, but Liara's idea worked. She followed the asari to her corner booth and made small talk, waiting for an opening. Morinth asked what interests she had, Shepard answered. "I like to travel."

Morinth teased, "On cruise liners or does it have to be fully armored warships?"

"Neither." Shepard waited for a moment as though to decide whether to share with a stranger. This was a designed performance too and Shepard was playing her role perfectly.

Morinth's eyes flickered with curiosity at the human's hesitation.

Finally came the answer, "On the ocean." Then Shepard cast down her eyes. She knew she'd see surprise in Morinth's eyes at this shared interest, feigned on her part but her acting was impeccable. Samara had shared a memory meld with her of a trip to the sea, a young Mirala hanging off the gunwale, one hand gripping tightly on the line and the other reaching down and breaking the waves, an open smile on the young asari's face as water beating down on her slim body. Shepard knew if she looked at Morinth and let the asari look into her eyes, she'd give away her true intentions. So she kept her eyes down, on the drink she hadn't touched once.

Morinth was more than curious now. What were the chances she'd run into another seafarer, a human no less, not an asari? And yes, this lost art in the age of space travel had made the Spectre feel embarrassed. If only she knew she need not hide her passion! "I was a sea hunter." Morinth offered as she recalled a young asari on a hunt.

Something large had tugged the line for longer than usual, it finally showed its head, a massive body breaking the waves and leaving a giant pool of white foam as it disappeared back into the water again.

"It's trying to chew off the line!" Mirala kept a sharp eye on the fish while the boat rocked in the giant creature's wake. Without warning, Mirala leapt overboard and dove into the water with only a grappling gun in her hands. Following the fishing line, Mirala caught up with the struggling fish, it was indeed a behemoth. She gripped onto its dorsal fin and when the two wing-like pectoral fins spread out, it doubled its body width. Mirala immediately went to work, shooting the grappling hooks into each swimming fin and then the small motor in the gun wound the lines tightly into a recovery knot. With the wings restricted, the giant creature's body slowed down, but didn't stop entirely. It's caudal fin still generated good speed.

Standing on top of the giant fish with her hand tightly gripped on the recovery knot, Mirala called up her biotics and through the thick water she pushed waves and waves of attacks at the fish's tail until it finally gave in from exhaustion. Now immobile, the fish's immense body started to drift into the depths of the ocean, taking Mirala with it. Panicked, the young asari almost let go of her grip to swim back up. But in the flickers of light amidst dark water, Mirala saw the fish's eyes, looking back at her, challenging her to go down into the depths with it. Anger rose from the pit of her stomach, the young asari knit her brows and pursed her lips. She gripped harder on the knot, her eyes meeting the fish's, not willing to let go.

A strong hand clutched her arm and yanked her off the fish and she felt her body ascending into brighter water. "No!" She screamed silently. "I had it in my grasp!" When Samara dragged Mirala from the depths of the ocean back onboard, she took her still grumbling daughter to her cabin to treat the wounds on her hands that the lines had cut in several places.

"I had it, mother!" Mirala protested.

"What's the first rule for a sea hunter?" Samara carefully put medicine on her daughter's hands and wrapped them with bandages.

"Never go down with your prey." Mirala answered begrudgingly. "Always know when to cut the line."

But it was this rule she learned at a very young age that had saved her all these years. In fact, she didn't just follow it but she almost perfected it. Before she even started her hunt, she'd already plotted her escape routes. She made a mistake once in that village and she would not do it again. The irony hadn't escape Morinth: she mastered the art of escape from the very person who taught her the lesson and who was hunting her now. A smile crept up on her lips, how she enjoyed evading Samara. Many a time, she wished her mother would catch up with her, she wanted to see her mother. Even just from a distance, she wondered what she looked like now. When Morinth looked into the mirror, she often saw her mother's face looking back at her. Pale blue eyes when she was not on the hunt, high cheekbones and that distinguished jaw. _Why do I look so much like her?_ The question was disquieting at first, especially when she was trying desperately to escape her hunter. As the distance she put between her and her mother grew in both space and time, Morinth felt a strange sense of comfort in her appearance, gravitating closer and closer to her mother. _I could be her flawless imposter!_

"I was a very good sea hunter." Morinth said again to bring herself back from the memory of the young Mirala. Nothing came beyond the "oh" as reply, Morinth prodded. "But I'm guessing even though you kill, you don't hunt. That's not kind of person you are."

"Oh, yeah? What kind of person do you think I am?" Shepard looked up.

Finally the human showed a sign of interest and it was the asari's turn to perform. Morinth held Shepard's gaze, "But he'll remember with advantages, what feats he did that day: then shall our names."

Shepard's shock was clearly on display. Morinth couldn't hide her smile, the human was ready for her bait. "But I'm guessing those are not your favorite lines."

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ner'er so vile…" Shepard stopped, the familiar bravado when she recited these lines was absent and she didn't think she could fool anyone to pretend that it was there. _Am I still happy to be in the company of heroes? Am I still considered among one of them?_ Kaidan's death was still on her mind, time had not treated her with the kindness of healing as it did for others. It had been almost three years to others, but in Shepard's mind, Kaidan died only a few months ago. And what about the 2400 crewmen served on the 8 cruisers that were lost in the Battle of the Citadel? They died because she sent them to their deaths. And now her old comrades had abandoned her and the very people she saved by sacrificing her brothers in arms had kicked her into the Terminus Systems. What the King said was false- there was no Crispian's Day. When Shepard looked at Morinth, she knew the asari saw her struggle and she tried to brush it away. "Am I that obvious?"

Morinth smiled at the surrender, the Spectre was letting loose a small amount of control- she was malleable after all. Now let's see if she'd take the bait. Putting a hand lightly on the human's that were clutching her untouched drink, the asari continued. "Those who came before should think themselves accursed they were not here and they were not you."

A flush washed over the Spectre's face, then it quickly faded. "I'm not all that special."

Endearing! Modesty didn't usually go hand-in-hand with heroics. "All those medals, smiling faces and praise from the leaders of the galaxy, don't any of that make you special?" More bait.

Shepard looked down once again, "I… went away for a while, now everything changed. I can't go home at the moment." Shepard told Morinth about her mission fighting the Collectors. Samara had mentioned that Morinth would be attracted to the notion of a tragic hero and she was right.

"Yet you still want to protect the world that refuses to accept you, knowing that you might give your life to save those who don't deserve your kindness." Morinth had to get into the Spectre's mind- this had turned enticingly fascinating.

"I can't watch the galaxy fall into its doom just because I'm misunderstood at the moment. This is bigger than me, than my team, than my pride." It was no longer performing for Shepard.

What an intoxicating escape that would be! Morinth all of sudden envied the Spectre. If one could so freely give herself to something else, something bigger, one could really achieve what had always eluded her. She wondered if anyone had ever succeeded in obtaining such a thing: to free one from one's self.

"You're not one of those people I read about in human religious groups that beat themselves every night, are you? Because I could show you much more fun ways to experience pain." Morinth felt her nerves jittering and she took a deep breath to calm them.

The comment got a chuckle out of the Spectre. "No, I don't have whip marks on my back, I only have…" Shepard stopped again. Was Morinth right? Were her scars made by invisible cilice?

The envy for the Spectre's devotion to protect was replaced by amusement at her show of vulnerability. Still with a downcast gaze, the Spectre's jaw showed tiny movements. Morinth wondered what memories were playing in the human's mind, her toughest fight, her lost mates or her own suffering from injuries or near death? The last possibility tugged on her mind, Morinth would have chided herself for feeling so close to a stranger she just met. But the savior of so many feeling so lost, her suffering unhidden, plainly displayed on her face, tragically striking, cursed hero in her full glory. _Is that why I feel so close to her? Am I falling for her?_ No! Morinth stopped that line of questioning. It was mere curiosity, she reasoned with herself. She didn't fall for anyone, at least not since Raven, her first sexual partner and her first victim. She had learned since then, she only took what _she_ wanted and she never gave herself to anyone anymore.

Yet, the tingling sensation in her nerves was different, sending mixed signals that threatened to throw her off balance. She hadn't felt this jittery since melding with Raven, "Why are you shaking like that?" Raven had asked her right before they entered the meld.

"The nerves feel alive! Don't you feel it?" Morinth didn't know that was the symptom of her hunting urge before the first time she melded with someone sexually. It was this urge that drove her to her first love, Raven, a singer who was not too much older than herself, full of life and curiosity just like Morinth. Overpowered by her desire to dominate and consume for the first time, Morinth had no choice but let herself fully immerse in Raven's mind, going deeper and deeper. When her invasion was blocked by her lover's mind, she punched through the blockade with force, first reactively, but once it was done she wanted to repeat it again and again.

Right before Raven fell on the floor, she whispered her last words to Morinth through their meld. "I should hate you, but I love you."

What turmoil that created in the young maiden's mind. To feel the warmth of her lover's body and mind, only to bestow destruction upon it and to sever such a connection. The awakening to her new power and new desires was both intoxicating and condemning. A conflict Morinth hadn't experienced in a long time, a conflict she was experiencing now. _I shouldn't move so fast, but I'm drawn to her._

"Would you like to come to my apartment?"

Inside Morinth's apartment, Shepard listened to the Ardat-Yakshi's idle chat about the trophies of her past conquests as though they were mere baubles, as though no lives had been lost and no blood had been shed while acquiring them. Shepard remembered what Samara had said to her.

"Let there be no illusions, Shepard. Blood seldom was involved in her gruesome affairs but death was there nonetheless." Samara had been reluctant to share the most heinous part of Morinth's affairs, but she couldn't afford to risk Shepard's life without giving the human the whole picture of that which she must hunt. Shepard must see what she had seen, whether it was a lonely body in the back of a restaurant or festering carcasses unclaimed, left to their young, however gruesome and shocking, Shepard deserved to know her odds before walking into the battlefield. Even though the Spectre represented the best chance she had seen in centuries to catch the killer, Samara felt hesitation clot her mind. She had made peace with killing Morinth and with her own death should she fail, but she couldn't live with it should ill fate touched Shepard. The immediate admiration and almost kinship she felt for Shepard was only reinforced by the magnitude of Shepard's mission- the human was more important than Samara's own quest.

But once again, the human surprised her. After the melds where Samara shared some of the crime scenes left by Morinth, Shepard's comment was "deep down she was seeking your approval and looking for the most precious thing she'd lost, your love". _Where did she see that?_ Was it in the quick glance when Samara caught up with Morinth in that village, lingering now that the Justicar re-examined it, but still fleeting, did the human see a lost kid wishing to come home? Samara had sat on the floor in the Starboard Observation Deck on the Normandy, meditating. She had to turn her senses inward and look carefully at that fleeting moment to see what Morinth's face told her. To her surprise, she saw a glimpse of Mirala.

"Is she worth saving?" Samara couldn't help but ask the question if not in front of the Matriarch and her commandos, but at least to herself and to Shepard. Of course there was the salarian's request to consider, but there could be other ways to find other Ardat-Yakshi test subjects. G.G.'s mother volunteered for a treatment that she thought could bring her daughter freedom; if Samara had the disease she herself would volunteer if it meant that there could be a cure for her daughters. But giving a dangerous murderer to a salarian doctor with a questionable ethics was a recipe for disaster no matter how many times the salarian had shown them the security measures in his facility. But none of that mattered if she saw the face of evil when she conjured up Morinth's image. Her code and her conscience were quite clear on the punishment of such evil.

"We have to see the good in evil or we'd be blind to the evil in good." Shepard's words were often simple, yet more and more Samara wished she could recruit the human into the Justicar's ranks. For so long, hunting in solitude, she often wondered what her destiny was after taking down the killer. With the end seemingly so near, she had to tell herself that was a thing to consider only after the task was completed, not before. For now, she must accept the force she felt in Shepard, the force of good, was stronger than that in Morinth, the force of evil, and prepare Shepard for what she must face. At Shepard's request, Samara shared as many memories of Mirala as time allowed with her new human friend, the happy childhood, those adventures at the sea and the young asari's insatiable curiosity.

With the images and memories of Mirala at the forefront of her mind, Shepard took a deep, quieting breath and closed her eyes, readying herself for the brutal mind assault from the Ardat-Yakshi.

But there was hesitation from Morinth. With all her senses open, the body of a hunter in anticipation was unmistakable, the jittery nerves and butterflies in her stomach, her voice had turned raspy and her eyes deep, but why couldn't she summon the tsunami of burning desires to consume that she usually could barely control? A look of serenity flashed on the Spectre's features. It not only made Morinth pause a beat but it almost scared her. The relaxed jaw, the lightly shut eyes and the ever so slight hint of smile, all seemed to be challenging her to establish the meld. Should she trust her instinct or resist the urge to run away? The sea hunter in her suddenly surfaced, and looking at Shepard's face Morinth saw the eyes of that mammoth fish, staring back at her, challenging her to go down into the depths of the ocean, precarious yet tantalizing.

Morinth bit down on her lip as Mirala did while riding on the back of that fish, she opened up her mind and murmured, "Embrace eternity". What she saw was not what she had expected. The mind opened to her wasn't the mind of the Spectre but of her mother, distinctly not the Samara Morinth knew but the mother to Mirala, Rila and Falere. The memories and images were not the ones of an Ardat-Yakshi hunter, but of family trips, of meals shared in their favorite restaurants, of chats and banter among sisters in the playroom at their old family house. The overpowering sense of force shifted under Morinth, threatening to break through the clog of self-loathing she had accumulated over the last four centuries, and bring forward that young girl she had pushed so far back into her being. It frightened her as she felt the very small glimpse of her old self, the innocence lost, could destroy the being she had become.

"Why are you doing this?" Morinth asked through the meld.

"To save you!" Shepard answered.

Morinth went on offense. "Do you feel righteousness while you know yourself to be a killer?"

Shepard didn't hesitate, "Our fundamental differences lay at the most extreme end of spectrum. I view killing as a failure of producing peaceful solutions, it makes me feel less human each time I have to kill, it takes away a piece of me I don't want to let go and I will never get back. But you view killing as triumph, not just a mean to an end."

Morinth didn't expect that answer and she let her mind wander in a slip. "It wasn't always this way. I fought hard at first not to take lives, to only take what was needed to fill my hunger to a manageable level. But it got harder and harder to control." But she recovered quickly- she must buy herself some time to figure out what this Spectre wanted from her. "You expect me to believe you're willing to save someone who doesn't deserve your compassion?"

"I'm out here to save everyone else in the galaxy. I think you could use a break in your life. Stop running and I might be able to help you."

Morinth hadn't had this much trouble controlling a mind since Raven. "I should hate you but I love you." Raven's words echoed for the second time in her mind tonight. She threw an empty threat at the Spectre, "But I have your mind completely in my grasp." Did she really? Morinth could feel her knees weakening, like the time she melded with Raven, and her heart pounding but the pounding wasn't stemmed from desire but fear. She focused all her might to punch through the images and memories the Spectre overwhelmed her with, she needed to see the face of her fear, not the warmth and joyous images of her sisters on family outings, but the cold and shivering truth hidden behind the edge of the human's awareness. As she broke down each barrier, Morinth saw a glimpse of what she feared, "Samara."

Shepard felt the cold chills start at the back of her neck and radiate through her body, her knees wanted to give in and the strength in her limbs drained, as she stood her ground and took the punches from the Ardat-Yakshi. She held tightly onto the dog tags in her pocket as though they were the fulcrum to center herself on, to not lose to temptation and defend against mental assault. She gripped the tags with her palm, enclosing them tighter and tighter, feeling the edges digging into her palm, anchoring pain to reality. _Hold on, Shepard!_ She told herself, _just a while longer._

As the door to Morinth's apartment opened and Samara's voice filled the space, "Morinth!" Both the hunter and the prey fell on the floor, unconscious. Samara went straight to Morinth with biotics ready in one hand. But the unconscious form didn't move, "In the end, the sea hunter went down with her prey." She stepped aside as the asari commandos escorted the salarian doctor to the Ardat-Yakshi, a shot of sedative in hand.

Liara rushed to Shepard and gathered the soldier in her arms. Shepard's face sheened with cold sweat, "Shepard!" The soldier opened her eyes as Dr. Chakwas followed in after the asari commandos and she squatted down to check on the Commander.

"Did we get her?" Shepard tried to look over Liara's shoulder.

Liara watched the asari help whisk the Ardat-Yakshi away while the salarian hurried them. "Quickly, must get her to the operating room quickly to install the implant."

"Yes, we did." Liara saw Shepard's hand was out of her pocket, the dog tags wrapped around her fingers and the tags sat in her palm with indentation marks. "Thank the goddess, you're alright. You can be damnably frustrating at times, Shepard." Liara took Shepard's hand and held it with dog tags between them and she finally let out a sigh of relief.

"It must be the Irish in me." Shepard gave Liara her best smile and was happy to see it worked.

The asari leaned in and gave her a kiss on the lips, and then she smiled back at her lover. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Fiona."

Shepard laughed, but Dr. Chakwas's eyes widened. "Since when do you go by Fiona, Commander?"

Shepard turned to the doctor, "It's my mother's fault."

In the infirmary on the Blue Sabre, four fully armed and armored commandos were on guard, two stood by the main entrance and two by the small examination room where the salarian doctor, the Chief of the Medical Staff and Samara surrounded Morinth who had been recovering from her implant operation. After the salarian was satisfied with his modifications to the implant he had put in the back of Morinth's neck, he decided to bring his subject out for a test drive.

Morinth slowly opened her pale blue eyes, her body shivered slightly. "Cold." She murmured. The salarian covered her with an extra blanket and raised the bed into half sitting position. He handed Morinth a cup of blue liquid.

"Drink this and tell me what it tastes like."

Morinth took a sip and then another. "It's sweet. Has citrus flavor, a bit of eezo and a hint of a pair of my old boots."

The salarian smiled like a Londoner who saw sunlight for the first time after a month of rain. He took the drink away and shone a violet light into Morinth's eyes, then asked, "What do I look like?"

Morinth tilted her head and gave the salarian a thorough gander. "You look like a kind of fish on Thessia we called Mink. They're extinct now. But they used to sneak into our traps because they were dumb fish."

Now the salarian was absolutely gleeful, "I couldn't ask for a better test subject. You're perfect!"

The Chief asked him, "What are these tests?"

The salarian answered quickly. "The first stage of the implant is to put the mind into associative stage. Relate taste, sight and sound to memories before the mind was at the diseased stage. Then we move on to rehabilitate her brain to follow a normal neural pattern through the modifications of the implant and meditation. Then the final stage, teach her how to properly meld without triggering the symptoms of an Ardat-Yakshi's neural pattern."

"The plan sounds complicated. I'll confer it with my colleague." The Chief did a scan of Morinth's head.

"The first stage is easy, I call it whitewash; use the same drugs she's on now to help with the effect. But the rest of them might take a while, but if we're successful, we'll have a cure." The salarian doctor continued.

The Chief finished her scan. "Even after the final stage of the treatment, will she ever slip?"

"Anything is possible, Chief. The implant provides the correction for neural abnormality, but there's also behavioral component. We do have people killing others without being an Ardat-Yakshi. I can't help those, but for the ones with this disease, with the big help from the implant and through meditation and perhaps even an Ardat-Yakshi support group, like the monastery, these patients can live a normal life if they choose."

The Chief now sounded hopeful. "So those who live in the monastery can go out on field trips without risking disasters."

"Certainly. And those who can control their behavior can be reintegrated into your society, though that's not a work of a scientist, your government and your people will have to tackle that issue."

Samara had been standing a couple of paces away, letting the doctors examine Morinth. When the Chief left to call Dr. Neil, Samara moved closer to the bed. She cast her gaze on Morinth's hands resting in her lap, fingers laced, like she used to do when she was very young, listening to stories Samara told her daughters under warm orange nightlight, their eyes glistening with anticipation and enthusiasm. Morinth would lace her fingers right before the finale and then raise her arms to celebrate the triumph of a brave huntress as though she herself had been a part of the hunt. Samara reached out and took Morinth's hands into her own. The scars on her palms where the fishing line had cut had grown faint, but they were still there. Samara brushed her fingers over the scars.

The salarian tapped on his omni-tool busily and a lullaby every asari child had heard came on. He asked Morinth again, "Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear this tune."

"Mother." Morinth looked at the face in front of her, so familiar yet completely foreign. "Am I dreaming?"

The uncertainty in Morinth's eyes spoke of more than drug-induced disorientation. "Morinth," Samara started carefully, "I was offered a chance to spare your life and in exchange you must spend your days with this doctor to work on a cure for your disease. I am prepared to kill you still if you prefer death, but there is a chance you can help ease the suffering of your sisters and others who have the same affliction, I'm willing to give that chance a try."

Morinth blinked a few times, then she lowered her gaze at her mother's hands holding her own. "Why do people who I thought would hate me love me so much?" She looked up again at her mother. "I'm still a killer, I did those killings. When my urge is strong I can't fight it. I can only give in to it and I often enjoy it."

The salarian chimed in, "We've been monitoring your neural activities since I put in the implant, the patterns are already quite promising. You might still feel the hunting urge, but I'll give you some drugs that lessen the effect or give you sedatives to knock you out until the implant becomes more effect at reacting to your neural impulses."

Morinth looked at her mother then at the salarian. "Then what? I can't ever meld again?"

The salarian put a hand lightly on her shoulder. "No, my dear. I don't consider that a success. I aim to give you the ability to meld normally. But we have a lot of work to do to get there, and it won't be easy either. Burning the midnight oil, eating leftover insect stews, well, in your case, leftover of whatever you like to eat, and lots of head scratching until we get it right." He blinked his large black eyes at Morinth, "Are you in?"

Morinth only sighed and leaned back on the bio bed. "I'm tired of running. I'm very tired."

"Then I'll give you something to help you sleep." The salarian turned to his workstation to prepare a shot.

Morinth turned her head to Samara, "Will I ever see you again, mother?"

Samara bent down and hugged her daughter. "I'll do my best."

_My very best, my dear Mirala!_

Samara stood by the railing overlooking the nightscape of Omega. She had just watched the salarian shuttle leaving with Morinth for his medical facility. The salarian was so happy with Morinth that he gave G.G. not one implant but a second one as a backup, though he claimed the first one would last her a lifetime. Now without a firm destination, Samara waited to say goodbye to the human Spectre who made all this possible.

Samara had been meditating again on the Normandy before saying goodbye to Morinth, and Liara had come to check on her. "I've confined myself to chasing after Morinth for so long that I've missed my own life. Now that the longest quest in my life is over, I find myself left with emptiness."

At Shepard's request, Liara had asked Feron to dig up some old letters that Morinth had sent to Samara that never reached their recipient, and delivered them to the Justicar on an OSD. "This was Shepard's idea. Morinth must have mentioned something about them during their conversation."

Samara accepted the OSD as though it were a grand gift. "I wish Shepard could join the Justicar. It would be an honor to fight alongside of her in battle."

"There is a way to fight alongside her, if you wish, but not in the Justicar order."

Liara's words echoed in Samara's mind as the human Spectre approached her with Garrus and Liara in tow. "It's been a privilege to work with you, Samara." Shepard shook the Justicar's hand.

Watching the human and her team walk towards the docks, Samara made her decision. With a biotic charge of lightning speed, Samara moved gracefully in front of the Spectre. "Shepard, you had made me see things I couldn't have seen on my own. I don't swear my oath to anything or anyone lightly. But your mission is more important than anything I've encountered. I would swear my oath to you and serve with you if you'll have me on your journey."

"Are you sure you don't want to spend some time with your other daughters?" Shepard was more than surprised at the Justicar's move but seeing a smile on Liara's face, Shepard had a suspicion that her asari had a hand in this.

"I'm doing this for them as well." Seeing Shepard nod her approval, Samara flared her biotics, her eyes turned bright and she knelt down in front of the human. "By the Code, I will serve you, Shepard. Your choices are my choices, your morals are my morals, and you wishes are my code."

* * *

**A/N:** In case you haven't revisited Shakespeare lately, Morinth and Shepard quoted Henry V.


	24. Chapter 24 My Private Benjamin

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty-Four – My Private Benjamin**

Liselle hurried through Omega's narrow alleyways behind the food district towards the small warehouse where they'd meet with the red sand buyer who promised to pay five times the usual market price. Jagg, a big batarian brute, followed her closely with four other mercs a few paces behind them.

"I don't trust the buyer, this Ox. She's paying too much. Maybe you should have consulted with Aria." Jagg grumbled in his deep voice.

"I learned drug trafficking at Aria's knee." Liselle was in her oversized purple light armor. Her mother taught her to always wear clothing or armor one size too big so that she could be fully armed under the top layer of protection, a shin knife with a built-in hacking chip that could get her in or out of locked doors, a dart gun strapped to each forearm that could shoot armor-piercing flechettes with secondary incendiary detonations, and two small smoke grenade disks on her belt. Her mother called it "the perfect survival pack" for small quarter fighting and street brawls on Omega.

"Many new buyers will pay higher prices for their first deals to get in Aria's good graces, you know that." Liselle knew Jagg had good reasons to worry. What she said was true, but those higher prices were usually just high enough to catch Aria's attention. Rarely were they double the asking price to get special favors from Aria, and never five times higher. Liselle knew her mother's rules and she knew she should have consulted Aria before accepting the offer, especially before showing up to make the deal herself.

"With that much cash coming into Omega, you know she'll find out sooner or later." Jagg didn't buy Liselle's reasoning either.

Liselle pulled Jagg closer by his arm but didn't stop walking. "Because the buyer specifically requested this to be a discrete deal." It wasn't out of the ordinary to fly a shuttle-full of credit chits into a specified location on Omega, but above a certain amount, Aria usually handled it herself. This buyer approached Liselle with an incredible price, and the asari knew this was more than a drug deal and she wanted to find out what was being traded here first. "And I'll tell Aria when I bring her that pile of chits."

Jagg snorted, "You're just as greedy as she is." Earlier in the day, Jagg had taken a few of his men to inspect the extra armored shuttle that carried the cash and left his guards with the buyers, waiting for instructions on where to deliver the chits. Liselle would meet with Ox to discuss terms and conditions, as both sides knew that this wasn't a simple drug deal.

"All will be forgiven when Aria sees the cash on that shuttle." Though still very much in her maiden age, Liselle had a body an attractive Afterlife dancer would envy: opulent flesh in the right places, curves that only served as promises of softness in which an eager hand or face could find pleasure and comfort. But behind the young face and the maiden body, it was no longer the kid, wet behind the ears, spending her days in the lower districts of Omega, at the food streets where young kids and even animals that were brought in for the slaughterhouse ran amuck. With the understanding of the power plays behind drug deals, Liselle had already become successful in her own drug trafficking endowment. But ever since Commander Shepard rescued her from the mercs who planned to overthrown Aria's reign, Liselle sensed the threat tipping the power balance on Omega increasingly closer to home, to Aria, like this deal. _Who's behind it?_

And ever since her talk with her mother on the Normandy, Aria hadn't been the same around her. In the moment of weakness, or blame it on the painkillers Dr. Chakwas gave her after surgery, Liselle shared her childhood dream with her mother, a dream of traveling the galaxy, a dream she hadn't shared with anyone but Benjamin since they were kids. It seemed to have unsettled the equilibrium between mother and daughter. Aria's usual ranting about the drunkards treating her dancers like garbage or the workers at the mines relaxing at maintaining the drill or which guy looked at her daughter funny no longer spewed from the pirate queen each evening after she retired from Afterlife, and Liselle found herself oddly missing hearing it.

"And why are we going through the back alleys instead of the main avenues?" Jagg asked again. Aria paid him high wages to keep Liselle safe, and he knew what it'd cost him if he failed Aria.

"Shut up, Jagg! I have my reasons." Liselle let go of Jagg's arm and flared an annoyed look at the big batarian. Jagg was trusted by Aria, he was one of the few who knew Liselle was Aria's daughter. Seeing the batarian pursing his thick lips, Liselle softened her voice. "I want to take the shortcuts to get there early and observe the buyer's approach, okay? We'll get there faster through the alleys." The batarian gave Liselle a small nod of approval.

The back roads and alleys on Omega were Liselle's playground. Benjamin showed her every small corner in this lower district when they were kids. Aria had tried sending Liselle to school on Thessia, but she couldn't be sure of her daughter's safety there, and that scared her. So she gave up on the idea and let Liselle attend the schools on Omega with mixed species kids from different districts. Liselle met Benjamin in that school, a human boy with kind eyes and bright red lips.

Benjamin's father was a miner with short hair, sturdy shoulders and very few words. His mother, a stocky woman who worked odd jobs when she wasn't busy raising a son and two daughters, saw the good in everyone, a quality Liselle rarely witnessed in the world Aria lived in. Benjamin's mother was a good cook too, she made meals with common ingredients in her homemade dishes, but they were cooked with care and patience. Good quality meat was rationed twice a month in her most delicious creation, Miner's Stew and she always made sure that Benjamin invited Liselle for dinner when she made it. And when the evening was over, she'd pack a container of the leftover stew in a thermal bag. "This is for your mother."

Benjamin's parents never met Aria. Since her adventures into lower districts were forbidden by her mother, Liselle found ways to sneak out of the White Tower her mother owned and slip through the guards at the junction of two districts often enough that they'd let her through even if they saw her. "Careful down there, kid." They'd shout after her. Liselle had wondered if Aria knew about Benjamin's family and what she'd think of them. But every time she brought home the stew, the next morning, she'd find the container emptied, washed and packed back into its thermal bag. One day she got up early and found Aria sitting at her workstation looking through her communications and eating the stew. Liselle watched Aria licking the spoon with such satisfaction on her face, and she was shocked that Aria liked this home cooked dish and didn't bother to hide her enjoyment of the food. "This is the best Miner's Stew I've had in years!" Aria went into the kitchen and cleaned the container and put it back in the thermal bag. "Make sure you leave some credits for whoever cooked that."

Liselle tried giving credits to Benjamin, but the human didn't even spare a look at the chits the asari held in her hand. "My mom would be mad if you offered her money."

Liselle tried other tactics- a few chits casually forgotten on the coffee table, or they accidentally fell out of her pockets and landed between sofa cushions, or stuffed in the pockets of a sweatshirt she borrowed from Benjamin when she returned it. But each time, she'd find these chits returned to her, packed underneath the stew container. And it wasn't just Benjamin's mother's cooking- the food market in the lower districts lured her here too. The smell of garlic, cooking grease and different kinds of meat overwhelmed her as soon as the door to the district hiss opened. It excited her stomach and her taste buds. Benjamin would meet her at the entrance and hand-in-hand, they'd peruse the fare and were eager to put something in their stomachs but there were too many choices to decide swiftly. "Can't go wrong with BBQ meat." Benjamin would comment when they passed by their favorite butcher shop that also cooked their own meat. "That moon-egg soda looks good too," He pointed at a milky drink with fish eyeballs looking through the glass at them as they stood in front of a soda stand with a large shelf full of different colored drinks. But the human knew which one Liselle fancied on each of their food street outings. When Liselle saw something she was truly excited about, she'd squeeze Benjamin's hand in excitement and he'd throw down the few credits in his possession and they'd feast greedily together, either standing by the food stall or sitting in their favorite corners in small courtyards, with greasy fingers and small giggles, satisfied by the taste and the company.

Liselle loved these outings; her body craved them when she didn't visit for a while even though not all the food Benjamin introduced to her was accepted without reservation. Grapes for example turned her stomach at first. The purple juice pooled in the human's hand when he popped a grape in his palm to show her what they looked like on the inside. Liselle swallowed visibly. "It bleeds and looks like blood." Aria often took her to newly opened restaurants with famous chefs in the upper district. When Aria arrived with her entourage, the chefs usually came out and personally acquired her fancy that evening.

"Don't overcook it." Aria would instruct, though she knew this chef would never do that. Aria took Liselle here often enough even the young asari knew about this act the chef performed with her mother.

"I wouldn't want to bruise the flavor." The chef repeated Aria's own words back.

Staring at the nearly raw meat the famous chef produced for their dinner, Liselle crinkled her nose. She much preferred the meat grilled with spicy onions and cheap cooking fat imported from the elcor home world, the sizzling pile that cast magical spells as the young asari flared her nostrils and greedily took in the aroma rising from the hot cooktops. Benjamin often had enough credits to buy one order of this delicious dish at the food stall, and the two young kids would huddle underneath the deep counter, sitting side-by-by on the floor, listening to the dishes tossed on the counter above their heads. These dishes had equally greasy fare, and adults would sit on the stools by the tall counter and prop their feet up on the metal bar, unaware of the two young eaters sitting deep behind the foothold under the counter. Benjamin would only pick at the onions because he knew Liselle loved the meat, but Liselle would put a chunk of meat onto his onion pile when he wasn't looking. Trousers and long dresses on the adults' legs were perfect places to wipe their greasy fingers after they finished the dish and then they'd run away as fast as they could as the customers with dirty pants or dresses that they'd soiled yelled after them.

Though Liselle was decades older than the human, Benjamin showed her more things in the lower districts than anyone else ever did. The back alleys that connected the districts straight to the mines, the small shops that sold coffee and tea with bread baked each morning and they even got matching homing implants on their forearms at an underground tattoo parlor so that they could always locate each other by tapping on the implants in the programmed sequence.

Benjamin was the only person who didn't take shit from Liselle no matter how big a tantrum she threw. Someone had given the young asari a carbon copy of an old Earth painting, a beautiful beach scene where people lounged on blankets, and umbrella shade cast patterns on the sand and ocean waves crashed in the distance. It was mesmerizing how real the scene looked. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Liselle could almost smell the salty air and hear the booming sound of waves pounding the shore. She wanted to be an artist. But when she told Aria her new ambition, her mother only shrugged, "Last month you wanted to be a farmer because you saw the 'most beautiful fruit' imported from Thessia."

"But this is different!" Liselle took out the painting and showed it to Aria, "I want to paint something like this."

"I don't see the beauty in a bunch of lazy asses laying around on a beach." Aria was busy with a business proposal, but she paused to look at the painting.

"The beauty is in the single fleeting moment in life captured for an eternity." Liselle repeated the critique she heard from the person who showed her the painting.

"Don't you think it's madness when time flows the way it does for us asari, you spend unaccounted time to recreate a single moment that means nothing to anybody else?" Aria had never found art to be her cup of tea. Rouge had an eye for art, but not her. She much preferred displaying a hand canon on her wall than a piece of cloth with an image of time past. What's the point?

"The act of creation makes an unremarkable moment or an ordinary thing remarkable and extraordinary." Looking at the elaborate cornice and soft patterned rugs hanging on the walls in their tower, Liselle wondered if Aria felt at home when she was at home.

"That's madness."

"That's art." Liselle was ready to throw a tantrum as she trundled out of the tower in a way that showed she was in a bad mood.

After Liselle met up with Benjamin and immediately tossed a garbage can into the wall with her biotics, scattering trash in the streets, Benjamin commented. "Look, if you're going to run away, why don't you actually run away? Instead of talking about it every time Aria does something that pisses you off and you haven't got the guts to tell it to her face."

Liselle turned around and stomped away. Benjamin let her go and didn't come after her. Liselle retaliated by kissing others when she knew Benjamin was watching, anyone who showed a slight interest in her, humans, turians, batarians, she kissed them. One day she announced loudly, though mostly for Benjamin's benefit, that she loved the thick lips on batarians. Benjamin looked away but he was always just around the corner, lingering in Liselle's peripheral vision. The casual kisses sometimes turned into something else, and the young asari fell for a few of them, or so she thought, until they changed their attitude toward her and kissed another girl. Liselle had no one to throw a tantrum at, she could only shed tears sitting on the stairs of the junction between the higher and lower districts, alone and feeling exposed. A hand with a handkerchief would appear under her bent head and dripping nose as Benjamin stood in front of her, shaking his head and sighing. "Liselle, when are you going to learn?"

"Learn what?" She sniffled and blew her nose noisily into the hanky. Liselle learned from the human boy that she shouldn't expect the conventional sense of nobility on Omega or chivalry in practice from anybody. There was no place you could learn those traits in a place like this and the few who happened to have learned them elsewhere before landing their feet on this rock wouldn't show them on Omega. She couldn't trust anyone else easily, only Benjamin knew who she really was, not only who her mother was but who she was on the inside.

When Liselle first met Benjamin, he was only a lanky teenager. Though decades older, Liselle was always petite, much shorter than her mother with a baby face that never grew out of its tenderness and wasn't touched by age or time, so they fit in immediately with each other. But the young human seemed to have turned into an adult overnight after his eighteenth birthday and he didn't grow much taller but turned stocky with a full head of jet black hair cropped like all miners down in the lower districts. The way, Liselle observed, Benjamin's father cut his hair; the old man's head bent down as he stared intently at the top of the hair, making sure the cut was even. The way he taught his son to shave, the way he gripped Benjamin's hand and positioned it at just the right angle, and the proud smile on the father's face when the son shaved the first crop of hair on his chin. The son smiled back, something was communicated yet nothing was said. These observations stirred something deep within the asari, and made her search somewhere her thoughts rarely dwelled before. Who was her father, did he know about her, did he teach anything that she didn't know how to do before? But when she looked inward, the memory of her father wasn't there.

Another thing Liselle learned from Benjamin was how to street brawl. Her biotics teacher, whom her mother had thought highly of, only taught her how to use her power. But Benjamin taught her how to fight with smarts. Liselle often used her biotics to throw heavy objects in the air, and Benjamin would jump up and twist his body and kick the object into an intended direction while his body was still hanging in the air. "Never let anyone pin you down. Stay on top and learn to leap on places that give you higher vantage points." Benjamin practiced fighting with almost a religious dedication but he rarely got himself in trouble. Living in a lower district where gang members often patrolled the streets and kids did outrageous things to get noticed by the gangs, Benjamin avoided most of these by slipping through the alleyways and back roads he knew like the back of his hand. He taught Liselle where to go when she needed to escape in emergencies- slipping through shops' front doors and exiting through the back, and the owners often were his father's friends or loved his mother's cooking. One thing Liselle discovered that good people down here in the lower districts stuck together, helping each other carve out a life for their families in the harsh world that was Omega. Even Aria was amazed, "If it weren't for the good people on this rock, Omega would truly be hell. And I'd be damned if I had to be the keeper of hell."

They did put their practice to use once. A mercenary who had a vendetta against Aria found out who Liselle was and took her when she had just arrived at the crowded food district and hid her in the maze-like tunnels of the mines. He tied Liselle's neck with chains to an old elevator platform and cranked it to three stories high, and then he streamed vid feeds to taunt Aria. It'd take days or even weeks to find someone hidden in the massive tunnels where no map or even the miners who worked there could help the searchers. And the mercenary would enjoy watching Aria's daughter die from thirst and hunger. But his biggest mistake was not binding Liselle's hands.

Benjamin was five minutes late to meet Liselle at the entrance of the food district, but he waited for over an hour before he felt the pulsing on his forearm. He'd only seen the implant working once at the tattoo parlor- the artist who put them in their arms demoed how it worked after the installation, the tattooed dots and lines on their arms were the guide to the homing sequence and another sequence brought up a detailed map of Omega. He followed the holo map that popped up through his skin into the mines.

At the entrance of the section where the asari was held, a guy with a knife was on watch. Noticing a young human approaching, the guard shouted, "Hey, if you're lost, turn around and go left, it'll take you to an elevator up." He flipped the knife in his hand and waved it at Benjamin.

_Bad form,_ the young human thought, _you don't show your hand until your opponent shows his. _He squatted down and picked up an old pipe and a used lunchbox. The lunchbox was heavy, made with thick metal to withstand heat for miners who took their food into processing plants. The young human tossed the metal box in the air and jumped up while twisting his body and kicked the box into the guard's hand and watched the knife flying into the wall. Benjamin started running as soon as he landed on his feet and when he got closer to the guard, he first whacked him behind his knee to bring him down, then on his head to knock him out.

When he came into the center of a large hall that connected four-way tunnels, he saw Liselle on the small platform up on the elevator supporting beam, and a guy with a pistol was standing high up on a catwalk that extended just above the platform. The catwalk lined the walls, but only the piece the guard stood on was close enough to step onto the elevator. Benjamin eyed the closest wall to the platform. If he leaped off the higher catwalk he'd have a good chance to land on the platform and free Liselle from the chains. But what about the pistol in the guard's hand? He'd have to think of something on the long climb up to. Liselle saw him first as the young human stepped onto the metal catwalk, his boots making clanking noises. Then the guard saw him too.

"Don't come any closer or I'll shoot you!" The guard threatened and pointed his gun at the intruder. But Benjamin was all the way on the other side, with the elevator platform between them. The threat felt empty. The guard thought for a beat then aimed his pistol at the asari on the platform. "Or better yet, I'll shoot her."

Benjamin's eyes widened when the guy pointed pistol at Liselle, he shouted "no!" to turn the guard's attention away from the asari and jumped onto the platform in a desperate leap. To their dismay, the old platform could only hold one person's weight, and it started tipping and swaying as soon as the human landed on it. It also made them moving targets as pistol bullets hit the metal bars on their left and right. As soon as Benjamin pried open the lock on the chain with his pipe and freed Liselle, the platform promptly dumped them both from the three-story height. Liselle panicked when she heard Benjamin shouting, "oh shit!" and she reflexively put a protective barrier around the human as they plummeted down, forgetting about herself until the last minute. Benjamin landed on his feet and rolled on his shoulder into a stand, unhurt. He looked at Liselle who still lay on the ground holding her ankle, "Liselle!" Benjamin took hold of her but when he looked up, he froze- the pistol was trained squarely on the asari. Before he could take action, a powerful rifle fired incendiary rounds behind the guard, and the guy dropped his pistol and fell from the catwalk and landed next to the young couple with a loud thud. Benjamin covered Liselle with his body, but the danger was over as they both watched Aria walk into the tunnel. The queen of Omega walked to the dead man who was nothing but a heap of cooked meat, "You don't fuck with Aria!"

Aria waved her hand at one of her men to bring a field medi-pack. She checked Liselle's ankle, broken bone under bruised flesh, she needed to get her daughter to a hospital. "How did you find us here?" Liselle wasn't surprised to see Benjamin but her mother's appearance was unexpected.

"You didn't think I'd send people to Benjamin as soon as we received the threat?" Aria said coolly. "If anyone knows how to find you it'd be him."

"You followed me here?" The young human knew Liselle was in trouble as soon as he saw her signal coming from the mines. Unlike her mother, Liselle hated the mines and would never go there of her own will. But in the hurry to get to Liselle, Benjamin didn't even think about getting some back up, and he almost got Liselle killed with his rash actions. He bent his head and worked his lips into a knot.

Aria saw it on the human's face. "You're inexperienced. Next time call me for back up." She turned to Liselle. "He'd throw himself in front of a bullet to save you."

Liselle looked at the young human, glassy eyed. "You would?" The human didn't offer any answer.

Laid up with a broken ankle in the White Tower, nights on Omega, alone when Aria was still busy with business at Afterlife, could quickly turn foreboding. Liselle begged Benjamin to sneak in during the night, after the usual objection of "if I get caught going to your district Aria would have my head", Benjamin would dutifully come, sneaking through the garden and somehow through the air tight perimeter security that Aria was so proud of, and walk Liselle to the rooftop above her bedroom supporting her by her armpits to hop over door jams and climb stairs. Watching the asteroids orbiting Omega never got old for Liselle, neither did listening to Benjamin talking about his dream of becoming a surveyor. "If someone hadn't found this rock, we wouldn't have Omega today. Can you imagine a rock you discover that would some day support millions of people who live on it for generations and generations? I want to be the guy who marked GEO-0992 and imagine to see it one day turning into something useful like Omega."

The enthusiasm in Benjamin's voice and his sparkling eyes made Liselle's head spin. She wanted to survey the galaxy with him! She wanted to see the stars as they were forming or dying, she wanted to meet people in transport ships with their weary eyes and find out what kind of worlds they left behind and what kind of lives they hoped to lead at their destinations. What an adventure that would be!

But one thing had more than delayed the young human's pursuit of his dreams- Benjamin's mother died in a fight that broke out on the ship coming back from earth. She was one of the five bystanders who were caught in the crossfire and killed. It struck Benjamin down to the core. "I should have gone with her, I should have protected her. If I had been there to watch over her, she would be alive right now." The human repeated these words through the wake and funeral where Liselle never left his side. And the human vowed to stay with his family on Omega to protect them, his father and his sisters.

In the evening after Benjamin's mother was buried, Aria found Liselle on the rooftop, sitting alone, staring at the asteroids outside the station's barrier. Aria heard about what happened to the miner's family and strong-armed her way into paying everything for the burial affairs.

"How did you know I was here?" Liselle had thought this was her and Benjamin's secret place with complete privacy.

Aria sat down on the roof next to her daughter. "You didn't think Benjamin could sneak through the security perimeter without me knowing, did you?" Seeing the surprised look on her daughter's face, Aria let out a small chuckle, "Or I wouldn't notice the messy vegetable garden after he trampled through to get up here. Tell him to use the front door next time."

Liselle returned a chuckle and leaned on her mother. She felt tired after the busy day helping Benjamin bury his mother. Aria wrapped her arm around her daughter's should. "Do you like him?"

What a question! Of course she liked him. Oh, "in that way"! Liselle moved her gaze away from her mother's inquisitive expression and thought about herself and Benjamin in "that way" for a minute. Aria had thought about everything for her, Liselle even had a mistress who taught her nothing but sexual intricacies, and it wasn't just about female wiles and male virility. But with Benjamin, there was no need for overtures, and she certainly didn't need to bring out her wiles in the name of seduction.

Liselle wanted to tell her mother about Benjamin's dream of becoming a galaxy surveyor and her dream of traveling the galaxy. "Who's my father?" Liselle asked instead.

Aria tilted her head and inspected her daughter's face. Words didn't come but what Aethyta said echoed in her mind. "Give Liselle a father or she'll grow up missing that part of her life."

"Do you want to leave Omega?" Aria chided herself for loosing control of her mind and her mouth. She couldn't imagine Liselle being out there alone, without her protection, but more than once, the kid threatened to leave this rock and live with her father. Aria exhaled the breath she was holding while waiting for Liselle's answer, but the young maiden remained silent. Holding her daughter in her arm, they sat in silence for a while, then Aria pointed at a large asteroid, "Do you know what that rock is called?"

"Liselle. You named it after me." The daughter whispered.

"When that rock was about to hit the station, I was supposed to be in the delivery room giving birth to you. But I stayed in the control room and personally saw to the laser guns and ships redirecting the crash course and trapping it within Omega's gravity. Couldn't trust anyone with a big thing like that, or we wouldn't have a rock to live on. When the asteroid finally changed course and started to orbit in our field, I had my first contraction. The day I had you was the biggest day in my life, I gained a daughter and an asteroid that now serves as our biggest warehouse base."

"That's why you love this rock. It has a part of you in it."

"And because I want to make a home for you here, under my protection." Aria sighed softly. "But sometimes I'm don't know if my protection is doing you more good than harm."

"I have to be here to protect you." Liselle whispered as she fell asleep in her mother's arms, Benjamin's words repeated in her mind, "If only I had been there for her."

Aria didn't take Liselle's words seriously. Not until Commander Shepard rescued the young asari from those mercs, did Aria realize what lengths her daughter would go to protect her from danger, and on Omega, being the queen of the underworld, danger was commonplace for her. Watching Liselle walk through the small warehouse door into the trap an old nemesis had spawned, Aria unconsciously grabbed Aethyta's sleeve. "Ox is trapping Liselle like she did with Rouge!" They both jumped into action, Aria directing her men to storm the door and Aethyta pumping her gun, this time there would be no gentlemen's agreement, there would only be death and revenge.

"What's going on inside?" Aria shouted through her comm to her men who were monitoring the vid feed from inside the warehouse.

"They disappeared into a hatch on the floor. I'm pulling up the underground map, and it shows the tunnel underneath the warehouse goes to the mines."

"Damn it!" Aria looked at her troops converging at the front door of the warehouse. "Don't bother to hack it, I'm sure Ox had put some black market shit on it. Just blow it to hell. Nobody is alive inside."

A loud explosion brought down the door along with the front of the warehouse. Aria and Aethyta rushed in first and found Jagg and the other four mercs who came with Liselle on the floor, all dead. They didn't have a chance to shoot a single bullet in the ambush. "Damn it!" Aria cursed again. A vid screen jumped to life on the wall monitor, static at first, then Ox's image came on.

"I know you're watching, Aria, and I know you're wondering why I'm back. First things first, I've rigged the explosives we've hidden in the shuttle that carried credit chits to the drill in the mines. You have an hour to get there and defuse it, if you have a smart bomb tech at your disposal. If not, boom, your drill will be out of service for two years. Ouch, that hurts!"

The vid feed switched to the explosive pile in the joints of the drill for a minute then switched back to Ox again. "But, it doesn't hurt as much as losing your daughter. Precious, isn't she? I'm sure you know how hard it is to find someone down in the maze, and you've only got an hour to get to her. I'll kindly leave the rest of the explosives under her pretty little ass. So choose, Aria, your mine or your daughter. That is, if you can find her, which I highly doubt. Even you don't know the maze that well. Enjoy your little title Pirate Queen. Let's see how much longer it'll last."

Aethyta's nose was breathing fire, but looking at her friend, Aria was as cool as a cucumber. "Thyta, she doesn't know you're here. Go to the drill, I bet she's there to see this job through. I get a feeling Cerberus is behind this, they just lost a big drug trafficking figure here and they would want to get back in the game, but hiring Ox was their mistake."

"But Aria, she's right. You can't find anyone hidden in the tunnels; there are hundreds of levels. You'll never get there in time!"

Aria thinned her eyes, "Thyta, you just bring me Ox. I'll find Liselle. Now go!" She turned around to the batarian behind her, "Anto, get me the fastest speeders. We're going to visit a human in the lower district."

Sitting on the roof of his apartment building Benjamin watched his grandson tightening up the last bolt on the door of his newly acquired used speedcar. The lad had been working on fixing the electronics in the door all afternoon. Still in his miner's uniform, full head of short white hair, Benjamin picked out a wrench and handed it to the younger man. "You need a bigger size."

"I got it, grandpa!" The young man gave his elder a smart wink and waved another wrench in his hand. Benjamin was about to walk over and try the wrench himself, when three fully armored speeders suddenly appeared in the view and swiftly landed on the roof next to the humans. Aria jumped out of the first one. Benjamin dropped the wrench. "Grandpa!" The young man jumped up and put a hand on Benjamin's shoulder and stood next to him facing the queen of Omega and her army.

Benjamin blinked twice then he suddenly grabbed his grandson's arm, "Quickly, get your Dad and bring all our guns! Let's see if your little speeder can go as fast as you claim." He then turned to Aria, "Liselle?" Aria nodded. Benjamin quickly rolled up his sleeve and activated the homing implant.

Inside the mines, Aethyta signaled Aria's troops to move forward and check the explosives near the drill. One of the engineers shouted into his comm, "We only have five minutes."

"Can you do it?" Aethyta sounded impatient. She didn't come here for the drill. She came for Ox. Where is she?

"Considering the consequences of failure, I'd say we'd better." The lead engineer waved his buddies over and they went to work immediately.

Aethyta knew that Ox was watching them and she'd be somewhere up higher. The Matriarch exited the drill hall and turned her cloak on and started to climb the long ladder leading to the second floor. One by one, she snapped the necks of Ox's sentries along the path leading to the high observation deck that overlooked the enormous drill. Aethyta thanked G.G. silently once again for the best cloaking chip she'd ever seen, it muffled the sound of her footsteps and never betrayed her approach. Aethyta stood behind Ox and she took out her knife, still under the cloak, she jabbed her knife into Ox's leg and uncloaked as soon as she heard the painful scream.

"Hello, Ox. That was for Rouge." Aethyta didn't give the big asari any time to process what had just happened, as her opponent fell on one knee, Aethyta backed up a bit and with full force she drove her head into Ox's face and watch her fall sideways on the ground. "That was for me, you bitch. You took my best friend away from me. You just wait and see what Aria will do to you." Still taunting the unconscious asari, Aethyta dialed Aria, "It's done. Your men will take her to your dungeon."

Aria let out a long breath in the speedcar when she heard from Aethyta, one down and one to go. She looked at Benjamin sitting in the backseat. "You leave the fighting to me, just point me to the right direction."

Benjamin stared at the old holo map projection on his arm, a lot dimmer than the last time he saw it. "We'll get to her, Aria. Don't worry." His shaky voice betrayed him.

Liselle sat on a crate filled with explosives, alone in the small end of a tunnel in the mines. She knew she was sitting on a bomb because the people who kidnapped her had piled the explosive bricks into the crate, covered it and then sat her on top of it, tying her hands and feet to the crate with thick ropes. The mercs had moved to the next tunnel so that when the timer that was ticking just below her feet went off, they wouldn't catch any shrapnel from the blast. Liselle had felt the implant in her arm pulse before she was tied up, and she activated her signal. But looking down at the timer, ten minutes, she knew nobody would get to her in time. Her hands were bound behind her, but if she could have a little bit of the wiggle room, she could launch a flechette to burn off the rope on her wrist and arm. She had to aim it away from the crate to avoid detonating the bomb, but she'd burn herself as well.

The asari looked at the timer again while wiggled her hands desperately behind her back, five minutes. She only needed a tiny opening so that she could twist her arm muscle in a certain way for the dart gun to release the ammo. When she finally felt the room she needed, Liselle bent down to her knees and aimed her arms away from the crate, and she fired one of the flechettes. The large dart ripped through the thick ropes on her wrists, but the secondary detonation caught the ropes on fire that quickly spread to her sleeves, Liselle screamed in pain. But her hands were no longer bound behind her back. Quickly patting down the flames on her sleeves, Liselle brought her charred, shaking arms and hands to her shin and took out the shin knife and cut the ropes around her legs. Only two minutes left on the timer.

The guards in the next tunnel heard the commotion and came to check. One of them shouted, "Careful, the timer is very close to going off." They stopped at the blockage to the entrance of the tunnel that held their hostage, weapons leveled and pointed at the exit.

One minute left. A large biotic wave suddenly came from inside the tunnel and it flipped two guards into the air, taking a big piece of blockage with them. Then two whiny sounds started one after the other, and one the guard shouted, "Grenades!" as the smoke grenades went off. Liselle sprinted out of the tunnel following the grenade explosions. At the same time, a larger explosion from the crate detonated behind them, and the shockwave sent everyone into the next tunnel and drove them straight to the solid wall. Liselle had barely enough energy left to soften her impact but her burned hands and the shockwave took almost everything out of her. Like everyone else caught by the shockwave, the asari slid down the wall and lost consciousness.

Hearing the loud explosion and feeling the ground shake under her feet, Aria's face turned ashen. "Shit!" She took off running towards the tunnel Benjamin pointed at, Anto and two other mercs followed her in a sprint. Benjamin held on to his son's arm with one hand and his grandson's arm with the other, and started jogging towards the tunnel as well.

In the debris filled tunnel, Aria got onto her hands and knees searching the bodies on the ground while shouting with a breaking voice. "Liselle! Give me a fucking answer!" But in the thick smoke, she couldn't see anything.

Benjamin arrived and directed his grandson, "Turn that knob to the left." He pointed at a panel by the entrance of the tunnel. The grandson ran over to the controls and turned the knob. The sound of turbines from a large vent came from somewhere and soon the vent holes above them started sucking the smoke out. "You've got to know where all the vents are if you're a miner." Benjamin explained to his grandson.

With smoke gone, they found Liselle who was still dazed by the blast and her hands trembled with pain. Aria and Anto carried her to the waiting shuttle where a doctor was ready with a fully equipped gurney and drip bags. Aria prepared for the worst. After the doctor cleaned up the wounds on Liselle's hands and forearms, and started her on an IV, he told Aria. "We should take her to the Burn Unit at the hospital."

With her adrenaline gone and her daughter safely strapped in the gurney, Aria let herself take a deep breath. "What the fuck were you thinking, Liselle? Why the fuck didn't you tell me about this deal?"

Liselle's ears were still ringing, and she winced when Aria raised her voice. "I'm sorry, Aria."

"You're sorry? You almost got yourself killed again! Tell me I have taught you better than this!" Aria was fuming now. This was the second time in the last few months Liselle acted recklessly and almost paid with her life.

A hand lightly touched her arm from behind, Aria sprung around, "What?"

Benjamin retracted his hand and gave Aria a calming smile. "We found her in time, Aria. She'll be okay."

Aria couldn't continue with her tantrum in front of the old human. She turned around and got into the shotgun seat through the side door and the large shuttle took off for the hospital.

Benjamin sat on the shuttle bench next to the asari on the gurney. "You haven't aged a day, Liselle. But you still lead a dangerous life."

"Ben, this is why I didn't ask you to be with me. Life is dangerous around Aria and I have the biggest target on my back, you knew that since the first time I was snatched and taken to the mines. Your father worked hard to give you a peaceful life, I couldn't take that away from you." Liselle took a deep breath, but stopped in the middle of inhaling and winced at the pain that lanced her ribcage. She must have hit the wall harder than she thought.

Benjamin put a hand on the asari's shoulder. "Say no more. I had a wonderful wife who gave me two sons." He pointed his thumb at the man sitting on the bench across. "My youngest, he was as much a punk as we were when we were growing up. But somehow he managed to get himself a very nice wife and gave me that handsome lad for a grandson. So no regrets, okay?"

Benjamin flickered a quick glance at his son; the son gave him a crooked smile and the father smiled back. Benjamin returned his attention to the asari. "I'm surprised that you're still on this rock after all these years. You used to dream of traveling."

Liselle saw the same exchange between Benjamin and his father when he was learning how to shave. Old memories had been surfacing a lot lately for her and they felt more and more like old wounds. "I screwed up many things, Ben. I haven't come to see you because I was too afraid that you'd be so disappointed in me. Becoming a drug mule wasn't my choice but it seemed to have been my destiny. Beside I can't leave Omega." Tears were shiny in her eyes when she looked up at her old friend.

"Hey," Benjamin took out a hanky from his pocket and handed to Liselle. She still looked so much like the young kid who sat alone on the stairs in the junction, crying about boys and feeling lost. "You're doing exactly what I should have done for my mother, protecting Aria. There's no shame in that. I would have never judged you for it."

Liselle's tears wouldn't stop now. She sniffled and blew her nose into the hanky, careful not to take too deep a breath before each blow. "Ben, you were the only one who ever understood me completely."

Up in the shotgun seat, Aria's anger was gone. Listening to the conversation behind her, her face froze. How self-absorbed had she been to not understand her daughter? She could blame everything on the busy schedule she'd had running a place like Omega, but she wouldn't. Had she been fooling herself when she told Liselle "I'm building this rock for you so that you can always have a home"? How could it be home when a daughter not only had to watch out for danger for herself but also for her mother? And sacrifice her own safety to keep her mother safe? What a fool she was, Aria thought, she had believed Liselle was happy on Omega, dancing and drinking every night in Afterlife. Liselle was only trying to find escape in alcohol or a random guy's fleeting interest in this trapped life she had designed for her. Aria's eyes turned cold.

Up on the third floor in Aria's White Tower, Liselle woke up to Aethyta's watchful eyes. "Hey, kiddo." The Matriarch greeted.

Liselle looked around her room, no Aria. An IV bag hung on a hook from her bedpost and the needle was still embedded in her arm, and her hands were wrapped in bandages. A familiar container that she had seen so often in her youth sat in a tray on her nightstand, in a clear thermal bag.

Aethyta sat straight-backed in the chair next to the bed, and talked in her deep and gruffly voice. "Your mother was here with you all night, I just chased her to bed. Told her I'd keep an eye on you."

"Thank you," Liselle drained the water in the cup the Matriarch held to her mouth. "For saving my mother's life long time ago. She told me what you did for her."

Aethyta put the empty water cup down and waved the other hand to dismiss the gratitude. "The least I could do." She pointed at the container, "Benjamin had his grandson dropped this off and said you'd know what's in it."

"The best Miner's Stew you'll ever have." Liselle answered immediately. "I'll have some in a bit."

Aethyta sat back down in the chair. Aria had given her a task, no, she had asked for Aethyta's help, a favor only a life long friend could be trusted with. "You mother asked if I could find a spot for you on my ship, she said you wish to travel."

Liselle's surprise clearly displayed on her face, but she didn't say more beyond a whisper, "She did?"

Aethyta nodded. "After you get all better, I can find you a spot on my ship and give you the necessary training. Or if you prefer being on a planet, I can arrange that for you too." Looking at the young maiden's downcast eyes, Aethyta put a hand on Liselle's shoulder, "Look, kiddo. You're Aria's daughter, not her shepherd. You need to live your own life, not a life of servitude to your mother. She doesn't want that. There's plenty of ass kicking in my line of work if that's what you want, but you'll kick bad guys' asses with the help of your comrades. None of this bullshit corruption and ruthless characters at every corner, you get me?"

Liselle smiled when she looked up again at Aethyta. "I think I would enjoy being around you."

Aethyta smiled widely. "Atta girl!"

Liselle leaned back into her pillows and permitted herself, for the first time in a long while, to contemplate leaving this rock, the only home she'd ever known, leaving her mother behind, and leaving a guy for whom she was falling hard in the last couple of months, Paul Johnson.

Could she really?

* * *

**A/N:** Paul Johnson was an alias Paul Grayson used when he was on Omega, according to the story told in Drew Karpyshyn's novel Mass Effect: Retribution.


	25. Chapter 25 The Tuchankan Desert

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty-Five – The Tuchankan Desert**

Shepard looked up when the door to the Loft opened. Garrus walked in with a bottle in his hand. Shepard smiled and abandoned the OSDs on her desk; she took out two cups and walked Garrus to the sofa. "Our favorite turian wine! What's the occasion, Garrus?"

Garrus poured the wine into each glass and settled himself comfortably in the sofa. "We never celebrated your return, Shepard. You can say what you want about those Cerberus goons, but that is one thing I'm grateful for. Besides, do I need a reason to drink you under the table?"

Shepard laughed. The warm liquid tasted sweet on her tongue just as she remembered. She let out a small sigh and leaned back in the sofa.

Garrus smiled back and poured himself another. "I hear we're going to Tuchanka. It would be good to see ole Wrex again. For a krogan, he's an alright guy and I miss drinking with him."

"He said there are a lot to see on Tuchanka. Apparently he and Matriarch Aethyta have been working on some secret project preparing for the Reaper invasion. Liara is already there, looking at a huge Prothean data trove the asari matriarchy gathered."

"It feels like the old times again. I wish Tali was here with us." Garrus drained deeply from the cup.

Shepard felt her temporary serenity wrenched by the mention of Tali. She had sent her friend several messages but hadn't received any replies. Shepard had replayed their first meeting since her return from the dead and the more she thought about Tali's mission the more she disliked it. "Both Liara and Matriarch Aethyta told me that things aren't looking so good for the Migrant Fleet. I'm worried about Tali. I've sent her messages to the Neema but still haven't heard back from her. Liara is going to have Feron check into their communications and see what's going on. I miss Tali, Garrus."

"I know, Shepard. I miss her too. I even wish that asshole Ashley would come back here, I'd talk some sense into her, or we can bring Wrex back, he and I will make a wager with Ashley, if she loses in a drinking game she has to watch your back, just like old times."

"Wouldn't that be nice?" Shepard put her cup on the coffee table. Ever since seeing Ashley, she had been wondering what Kaidan would have done. Would he have taken a fist to his old commander's face? No. He'd resort to logic and reason, and he'd use that sharp voice that he always used when he chided his commander. "Garrus, we had a family on the SR-1 and I'm getting what's left of them back."

Seeing a cloud come over Shepard's face, Garrus added some wine to her cup. "Hey, at least we're picking up some new blood. I don't care for the Cerberus goons, but the drell you and Liara picked up, he's all right. I had a chat with him, he knows a lot about sniper rifles and mods, he even helped me with a couple of things."

Shepard let out a sigh of contentment; she had missed just sitting and chatting with Garrus. "I thought you'd keep a distance seeing that he's an assassin, and you know, you're on the other side of the law."

The Archangel chuckled. "I have learned a thing or two by being around you, Shepard. If it were up to me, I'd have shot Benezia the minute I saw her. But I've learned to think more like a diplomat than a C-Sec officer. You should record this conversation and play it to my father, he'd probably kick your ass or give you a medal."

That brought a chuckle out of Shepard as well. "EDI, be sure to archive this conversation. I might find a use for it the next time we need a favor from Garrus' old man."

When their shuttle landed on Tuchanka, the day was already boiling. Wrex's large form and red shell appeared from one of the dozen tents lined in the compound where the Tuchanka project was building underground. Shepard reached out to grab the krogan's arm. "Damn you, Wrex! We've been apart for too long."

Wrex gave a deep rumbling growl. "I never doubted for a moment that you'd be back and kicking ass again. Krogans don't die easily and neither do you." Wrex shook Shepard's hand and pointed at the large door leading to the underground structure. "While you were sleeping, we've been busy building a fleet and a network. Come on, you have much to see, better get started."

Shepard pointed at the young krogan behind her, "I also brought you a tank bred krogan, his name is Grunt and he needs a family, Wrex."

Wrex took a large step and stood in front of Grunt. "Tank bred, huh?"

Under Wrex's stare, the young krogan pounded his chest once. "I want to be the best known warrior in krogan history. The name Grunt will rival those of great generals and battlemasters."

Wrex only grunted and talked to Shepard without removing his stare from the young krogan. "I see you've got a lot of work to do with this one. He'll have to go through the rite of passage."

The dismissive tone in the clan leader's voice irritated the young krogan. He grumbled his questions at Shepard. "Am I not the perfect krogan? Why doesn't the clan leader want me? He wants me to kill a worm? Shouldn't he be worrying about recruiting the biggest krogan army instead of curing some disease? And what the heck is Genophage?"

After two days touring the facility and meeting with the people running the Tuchanka Project, Shepard decided to take the trip in the desert and help Grunt complete his Rite of Passage in the old arena. Both Matriarch Aethyta and Liara would join them on this adventure.

The strong morning sun harshly revealed the detritus around the camp as they set out on the long march into the desert. At Lieutenant Kurin's suggestion, each traveler added environmental mods to their armor to keep body water evaporation to a minimum. She offered a commando unit to escort the Matriarch on the journey, but Aethyta declined the kind gesture and took off first, muttering only a few words to Shepard. "I'll scout out the path ahead."

The truth was she couldn't wait to get started on the trip with her daughter. This wasn't the annual varren hunt she had participated with her own father, the hunting journey she had dreamed to take Liara countless times, but they had both made it here at last, on her father's planet. What better way to introduce her daughter to the Tuchankan desert than helping a young krogan pass his rite and teaching him what it took to belong? The tribal ways had always fascinated Aethyta and they had also connected her to her father. To experience them with her own daughter was an opportunity of a lifetime. How could Aethyta contain her excitement?

Stepping on the hidden path towards the desert, Aethyta called up her memory of the journeys with her father. There were no marks in the sand, but the memory marks were clearly displayed in her mind. In the new beige colored armor that Jamaya had picked out for her to blend in with the Tuchankan desert, Aethyta felt cool and energized. The modded underarmor wrapped her skin tightly to preserve liquid and gave her a refreshing feeling. Wrex had given her incendiary ammo for the shotgun Liara had given her on the Shadow Broker's ship, and Aethyta had given it a name, "Rock" for its heavy weight, just like her old man's favorite weapon, heavy and sturdy. In close combat, when your shotgun ran out of ammo you could use the heavy gun to bludgeon your enemy to death. Reaching behind her back, Aethyta felt the familiar solid handle of the Rock and she smiled. "What a kid!" Aethyta breathed out. Liara had been on Tuchanka for three days and had only greeted her with a stranger's courtesy and then the kid buried herself in the Prothean data storage room, only coming out to join Shepard in their temporary quarters in the Bunker to sleep. Aethyta had a nagging feeling that the kid either suspected something or had figured out who she was to her, and she was trying to avoid her. Aethyta's smile faded; staring at the horizon that was already simmering in the morning sun, she sighed.

_No matter, we'll talk during this journey. And the Tuchankan desert will give me the strength._

The closer Aethyta came to the desert, the more barren the country, until she could no longer see the small structures around the Bunker and the above-ground krogan camp. Pale yellow sand crushing under her feet and hot wind beating on her face, Aethyta stopped at the edge of the desert and waited for her three companions to catch up.

Shepard, Liara and Grunt took off an hour after Aethyta. Both the human's and the asari's armor had similar mods to Aethyta's with special cooling underarmor, but Grunt's mod was for his shell. At the young krogan's request, the weapons master at the camp had given Grunt a v-shaped meshed plate that covered his head with a reinforced point in the front for more efficient head butting. "Here, stronger than any metal and it keeps your head cool under the mid-day sun. You wear this until you grow your own shell." The old weapons master told the young krogan. Each of them carried their own dry water canisters and food rations that would last them for the four-day journey: two days to the arena and two days back if the thresher maw didn't eat them for dinner. Grunt walked ahead in his bouncy steps and his companions followed closely behind.

When Shepard found Liara in the storage room in the underground bunker with her stacks and stacks of Prothean data discs and told her about the journey into the desert, Liara didn't show any enthusiasm about the trip. "Do I have to go? The commandos use Tuchanka as survival training ground. I am a creature evolved from the sea."

The day before the journey, Liara showed Shepard what she had discovered on the Big Whale: a series of vids of Matriarch Aethyta holding Liara's pictures in different locations and several letters Aethyta wrote to Benezia, some with harshly accusing words and others begging to come home to her bondmate and her kid. Shepard now understood why Aethyta wanted to invite Liara to join them on the journey. Perhaps the father wanted to talk to her daughter. "I promised you before I… died that I'd help you find your father. She had found you, I'd like to help you two to know each other."

Liara put down her OSD on the desk and looked up at Shepard. "She found me and promptly lied to me. She did not say a word to me this whole time. I had her in my mother's house, her bondmate's house, and the house she lived in for a century, Shepard! She didn't say a word!"

"She didn't exactly lie, she just didn't tell you the truth." Shepard could see the hurt and doubts behind the angry words, "She's proud and stubborn, just like you. There must be reasons she withheld the information, I'm guessing whatever that reason is, it's killing her not to claim you as her daughter. This couldn't have been easy for her either."

Liara wasn't convinced. Shepard took her hands and held them in her own. "Look, you were worried that she wouldn't like you or she might have wanted nothing to do with you, remember? But when you were alone and needed help, she protected you. She almost given her life to protect you when I wasn't there, when your mother wasn't there to protect you. I would have given her a medal for that. Cut her some slack and talk with her." Shepard brought Liara's hands to her lips and kissed them. "Besides, would you let me face the thresher maw alone with your crazy dad and a young krogan pup?"

Liara sighed. "Oh, fine. I know what you are trying to do, Shepard. But I am only going so that I can protect you."

Grunt saw Aethyta waiting for them at the edge of the desert and ran up to her. "How do you know where to go? I don't see any roads other than sand."

"There are many paths in the desert. You just have to know where to look." The Matriarch pointed a direction to their left, "This road leads to the old underground caves where krogans lived when fighting the rachni and expanded during the Rebellion." And then she pointed straight ahead, "We're on the road to the arena and burial ground." She turned and faced the right, "This path leads to the krogan female camps."

Grunt's mouth spread wide at the mention of female camps. "How do you know so much about the desert?"

Aethyta only grinned and started walking on the path straight ahead. This planet talked to her at a subterranean level. The sand, the wind and even the dried up sea spoke to her in a familiar tongue. The bristle bole of a thick low growing tree brought up images that her father had shown her, the images of green hills and blue seas on Tuchanka before nuclear winter. Old shipwrecks embedded in the dried up seas and old spire tower ruins stood in their stubborn ways, sculptures made by time and passing wind and sand. Most people think of deserts as lifeless, but here on Tuchanka, the desert was not lifeless, it was living in a different form. She could hear the desert when she tuned her ears and focused her attention: there were small beetles rustling and slithering. Standing in a vast sandscape, it was hard to imagine this was a verdant hill once. Only after the nuclear booms stopped, did the silent war begin. Radiation killed everything it touched and death swallowed all its hands could grab. But hidden beneath the surface, there were those who survived the nuclear holocaust. Life went on, just in a different way.

"When the seas crystallized, small pockets of water were trapped and they were too small for fish to survive in but not for small crustaceans. They dug tunnels between these water pockets and carved themselves a colony. When they grew bigger they dug bigger pockets and the colony grew with them. And when they finally made it to the surface for air, and that's when the varren came out and hunt them." Aethyta repeated the story her father had told her many times. She spoke loudly so that all members in the party could hear and hoped one particular member would walk next to her and ask her the questions she'd asked her father before.

"And that's when we come out and hunt the varren, right?" Grunt asked instead.

"You're a smart pup." Aethyta smiled. The krogan walking beside her made her feel at home. "Do you know when they come to hunt the crab?" Grunt shook his head. "At night. Varren hate the heat just like everybody else. During the day, the desert is quiet. But at night, everything comes to life. The plants stand straighter and animals come out to hunt. It's fucking beautiful at night in the desert." A millennia old asari and a month old tank bred krogan shared a laugh and a sigh of contentment together.

Shepard and Liara followed behind the Matriarch and the young krogan. When Wrex told Shepard how to help Grunt complete his rite of passage into clan Urdnot, Aethyta was sharing a drink with the krogans in the large tents above the ground. Wrex had told Shepard that his krogans preferred living in the warmth of the sun rather than the climate-controlled bunker. "Besides, there are no fish to stare at no matter how much it looks like the Citadel." The Matriarch had brought in a bathtub for Wrex and his krogans so that they could keep fish in it once they hooked up the pipes to the tents.

"You can't take a tank or a shuttle to the arena. That's cheating!" Aethyta put down her drink and turned to Wrex and Shepard. "The journey to the arena itself is just as important as the fight. How else could he understand the desert if he didn't walk in it? And how could he be a krogan if he doesn't understand the desert?"

Wrex's beady eyes turned warm as the corners of his mouth curled up. "Shepard, the Matriarch has a true krogan heart. It's up to you how you want to play it."

Aethyta offered again. "I know the way to the arena like the back of my hand. I'm happy to guide you there." She stood up and followed Shepard out. "You think Liara might want to come along too?" Even though the hot breeze constantly reminded them this was Tuchanka, Aethyta could feel Liara's icy exterior when the younger asari saw the Matriarch at the Bunker. Her heart ached every time Liara turned the other way when Aethyta tried to make a move to talk to her or even just get physically close. _She knows and she blames me for leaving her. _

In the mid-day when the party was well into the desert, the bright orange sun smoldered the sky and the horizon danced with heat in their vision. Aethyta pointed at a gentle rise in the short distance, "Beyond that ridge, there's an old shipwreck we can hide under to take a break from the sun."

"That looks just like other dunes we've seen. How do you know the shipwreck is behind this particular one?" Grunt asked again.

Aethyta only smiled and remained silent. The grit under her feet told her they were walking onto a different kind of terrain under the disguise of the sand, a firmer response after the usual dip in the steps- they were on the edge of the dried up sea. Aethyta quickened her pace, she was eager to see her old friend again.

Over the small sand hill, a flat surface expanded to as far as eyes could see. In the vast yellow sand plain stood a sunken ship, startling the otherwise uninterrupted landscape. Only half of the ship, the forward half, was sticking straight up in the air, guts of the ship emptied, only the hull remained. The dried sea had swallowed the unseen aft half of the ship, and sand had piled on top of the hard surface, framing the sunken ship in its unnatural background. The curvy hulls of the shipwreck created shade from the hot sun. The traveling party quickly entered the temporary sanctuary, shedding their backpacks and reaching for their dry-water canisters.

After a few moments of rest, Aethyta pointed at the space behind them. "Sometimes a huge storm would swipe through here and move all the sand over there into a small hill, and it'd leave the surface here barren, and you could see the dried salt mixed with orange acid underneath the sand, cracked and curled on the edges, so hard that you couldn't penetrate it with a pistol."

Grunt jumped up and followed Aethyta's vision to the small hill behind the shipwreck. "I'm going to check it out!" With only his weapon in hand, the young krogan walked towards the small dune. Shepard followed behind him.

Alone at last with Liara, Aethyta stood at the edge of the shade and watched the krogan and the human climbing the small sand hill. "In addition to the hot sun, dry air and the dangerous fauna and flora, Tuchanka is an excellent place for dreaming." Aethyta seemed to be talking to herself, but her deep voice was loud enough for Liara to hear.

Despite the romantic notion Aethyta had of the desert, Liara couldn't help but feel the savage undertones of their surroundings. The planet and this desert looked surreal and otherworldly to her. How could any asari love a desert so much? And how did she let Shepard talk her into going on this trip with them? When Shepard told her that Aethyta had volunteered to embark on this journey with them, Liara could only guess what the Matriarch's plan was. What kind of excuses would she conjure for abandoning her own child? And what kind of devious person was she to hide her identity from her daughter while masquerading as her friend? Liara wished she wasn't in the desert when she confronted her father- she couldn't think straight in this heat!

"How can anyone even fall asleep in this heat under the baking sun?" Liara let out a comment that stamped out the enthusiasm in Aethyta's voice.

Looking at the sun shimmering in a molten sky, Aethyta smiled. "A real dreamer doesn't need to go to sleep to dream."

"What do you dream of on Tuchanka?" Seeing no escape from talking, Liara turned her full attention to the Matriarch.

"The future, the past, the life I never had. But most of all, I dream of this." Aethyta swiped her gaze from the base of the shipwreck embedded in the bedrock through the bow and to the prow.

"You dream of an old sea vessel stuck in a dried up acid sea?"

"No. Taking a trip with you here, in this very desert, like my father did with me for many years." Ignoring the irritation in Liara's voice, Aethyta produced a smile as her eyes welled up with tears. This was a dream come true. She looked further at the horizon and the little black dots created by short brush that looked like they were dancing in the heat-distorted vista. "I had dreamed of this day, standing right here, me holding your hand and telling you stories of my father, of the desert. Of course, you were always much younger in my dreams."

Abruptly, Liara jumped up from the base of the shipwreck and walked pass Aethyta. "I can't do this! I'm going to join Shepard."

"What? We can't even talk to each other?" Aethyta hid her deflated spirit and asked in an even tone.

"Talk? You're the one who should talk." Liara stopped in her tracks but she couldn't stop the tremor rising from her stomach. "You had plenty of chances to talk to me, to tell me the truth. Now you want to talk?"

"What do you want me to say?" Aethyta moved her eyes away from Liara's face that was trembling.

"Tell me who you really are!" Liara shouted.

Aethyta wished she could carve out her heart and show Liara how much she loved her and what she'd do to protect her. It pained Aethyta that she had caused Liara such grief. "Look, I'm sorry. I promised your mother I wouldn't say anything, okay?"

That was a wrong thing to say. Liara moved closer to Aethyta, staring intently with fiery eyes and flushed cheeks. "My mother made you promise to hide from me? My dead mother?"

Aethyta backed up a step at the word "dead". She hadn't let herself think Benezia as "dead" when she brought up Nezzy's image in her mind. When she thought about her former bondmate, Benezia was always in motion, at work giving a speech or at their home drinking tea or telling her about something funny she had heard. Aethyta never knew that Benezia told jokes until they moved in together, but somehow Nezzy always managed to make her laugh. It was always the laughing face that was plastered in Aethyta's memories of Benezia, so open and warm. It had overshadowed the gloomy days of their last few months together, sensing the dooms day was coming when Aethyta picked up her things and left the house they had shared for nearly a century; and Aethyta could never bring herself to look at Nezzy's face in the vids Shepard brought to the Council from her battle above Noveria. Even after Liara came into her life, when the lost was amplified by the absence of the other family member, Aethyta still didn't let herself think too much about Benezia's death. She couldn't let herself touch the sense of the infinity in that word, she couldn't imagine her Nezzy was gone, forever. But hearing the word from her own daughter startled Aethyta presently. The sudden crushing wave hit her when she had no defense against it, and the realization made her head spin. She turned away from Liara who, from the movement of her mouth and the expression on her face, seemed to be still asking questions, but Aethyta didn't hear a single word. The ringing in her ears had blocked every sense from her, the only thing she could feel was the heat, the baking heat rising from the base of the bedrock and cooking the sand above, almost crystalizing the pebbles as they glittered in sunlight. Aethyta grabbed a broken plank sticking out from the bow and steadied herself.

"What do you want from me?" She asked weakly.

"I want answers!" Liara's face was still burning, but her voice sounded far away.

Before Aethyta could respond, Grunt's voice came from behind the shipwreck. "Matriarch! We found a freshly used fire pit over the ridge. Someone had been here last night! Shepard said you should take a look."

The discovery of other desert visitors had distracted the tension between the father and daughter. It took no small amount of effort on Aethyta's part to feel her legs returning to her and to move those legs past her daughter's stare and climb over the crest and investigate the small fire that had burned within a small circle of rocks. Aethyta cleared her throat before speaking, "They're a day's journey ahead of us. There're only two places this path leads to, the rite of passage arena and the burial ground. We either have another seeker of the rite or fighters who will fight to their deaths at the burial ground. Let's hope they don't cause any trouble."

The journey between the shipwreck and sunset was a quiet one. Everyone seemed to be preoccupied by their own thoughts as they reached the overnight campground marked by a few posts on the ground for setting up tents and a small stone circle to build a fire. The desert overnight was a cold place. Before setting up the tents, Aethyta stared at the narrow band of orange drawn out in the distance, bulging in the middle where the sun trekked rapidly into the horizon. She had always loved the exotic sunset in the Tuchankan desert, its beauty often moved her to tears. But not today. As the pale metallic blue replaced orange sky overhead, she muttered with a heavy tone. "We'll need a defensive perimeter from the night hunters." Without waiting for any response, Aethyta started to walk towards the edge of the campground to set up an enclosed sensor network. Shepard followed her.

When they finished placing the sensor posts, Aethyta stared out at the distance and pointed at a small dune to Shepard. "There used to be a beacon for travelers on this road to follow. The beacons used to line this trek for the annual varren hunters, the rite seekers and there were even tribes that roamed in the desert, mostly female krogans, never settled down in one place. When I was a young pup like Grunt, my father told me stories of the roaming tribes, I used to fancy that I was traveling with them."

Shepard sensed that the Matriarch had her own agenda for this trip, and from the brief stolen glances she flared at Liara, the human hoped that the father and daughter would work things out. Liara needed her father in times like this; Shepard understood that perfectly as she often felt the urgent need for her own mother. "The desert has a special place in your heart."

"It's magical when you're a kid to travel in the desert." Aethyta's thoughts turned tender and her voice turned soft too. "The infinity springs possibilities in a kid's mind. I had dreamed of taking Liara here ever since she was born."

"You're a great teacher. I'm very glad you came along. Grunt has learned so much about the krogan way on this trip from you." Shepard saw the sudden discomfort Aethyta showed when she was being complimented and the human smiled. "Liara is very smart. She knows that you're trying, she just need some time to adjust, please don't give up on her."

Aethyta had seen the vids of Shepard in battle, but this side of the warrior gave the Matriarch a pause. She had imagined the first human Spectre would be determined or even ruthless at achieving her own goals, but she had also observed Shepard around others, the way she instantly won over a Justicar, the way she looked at Liara when her face softened and shoulder relaxed, and the way she talked about Benezia. This human had a gift of connecting with people- she connected with Benezia, my Nezzy! Aethyta gave Shepard a smile, "There's no way in hell I'm giving up on her now."

When they got back to the campground, Grunt and Liara had set up three tents and a fire was burning from three small canisters within the stone circle that shielded the flames from the passing wind and spilling sand. Grunt sucked down his ration pack, "I wish we'd hunt varren tonight." He had heard the krogans around the Bunker talking about grilled varren meat.

Aethyta tossed her own ration pack in Grunt's lap, "Don't worry. You'll have plenty of varren to kill when we get to the arena. We need to save our ammo for the thresher maw."

Shepard got on her feet and motioned Grunt to follow her. "Come on, Grunt. You take the first watch, I'll show you the perimeter we've set up."

Liara didn't touch her food ration either. Watching Shepard and the young krogan disappear behind the tents, Liara stood up and walked a few steps away from the fire and faced the last light of the day. She trained her eyes on the transient beauty of the setting sun, and took a deep breath and let her ears and skin feel the sudden stillness descending upon the desert in the quick darkness after the pale blue sky vanished.

"On other planets, if you don't like the heat, you move to colder latitudes. Here, you got to stand your ground because there is no other place you can go to escape." Aethyta's voice behind her told Liara that the Matriarch was standing close. The young asari didn't move her vision from the darkness that blurred the line between the land and the sky.

"There are some low growing bushes in the northern part of our perimeter you've got to watch out for. They're poisonous on contact. The krogans use desert beetle's serum to treat poisoning by these bushes. They've also discovered that the rachni's piss could sanitize the wound from the thorns." Aethyta retold the wisdom of the desert her father had shared with her, keeping the topics safe and benign.

Liara closed her eyes for a moment as her mother's voice came to her mind. "Liara, don't be discouraged when you see flaws in others and in yourself. Only when you realize them, have you gained the right knowledge. That's how you grow." Liara was amazed at how often her mother's voice spoke to her now. When Benezia was alive, Liara sought to hear her own voice that she felt was drowning in the crushing weight of her mother's wisdom. But now when her mother was no longer talking to her, she found she sought her mother's voice buried in her memory, and to her surprise she could hear her mother clearer than before. If her father had indeed made a mistake when it came to her daughter, she might have had a good reason.

Liara turned around and faced Aethyta. "Did you think I would be a burden to you?"

"What? No!" The sudden question made Aethyta's heart jump for a beat. "Your mother made me take a blood oath to never reveal myself to you."

"Why?"

A question Aethyta had asked herself over and over again. Why did Nezzy kick her out before the kid was born? Was the pureblood curse so bad that two powerful Matriarchs couldn't protect one kid from the prejudices again her? Or was it because of the fights she and Nezzy had and the things they both said to each other that they regretted deeply afterwards?

The wind had picked up after the sun disappeared from the horizon. The beating sand on her face filled Aethyta with an odd sense of displacement in time. She once stood in the same desert at sunset, tears streaming down on her face while she cursed herself for crying. Aethyta had come to the Tuchankan desert after watching her daughter's birth from a distance. She needed an escape from the memory of Nezzy holding a bundle of blue in that hospital room where Malayne, Sha'ira and Shiala surrounded the new mother and the new baby.

The joyful laughter sounded muffled from the distance, where Aethyta stood behind a busy nurse's workstation. But the glow of a new mother, even at the Matriarch's age, made Benezia look even more beautiful. Aethyta stood by the wall, half hidden from the view, mesmerized by the look of Benezia and by the faint cry of her newly born daughter. She didn't remember how long she had stood there, watching the mother and the daughter, unnoticed by the ones who knew her and uncared for by the strangers who walked by. After the nurses put Nezzy to sleep and Liara in her carriage into the nursery, Aethyta snuck in and stood next to her newborn and stared at her. The kid had such energy, flailing her little arms in excitement when she saw Aethyta and she tried to reach Aethyta with her arms, then brought up her legs and feet trying to touch the hand Aethyta put on the plastic barrier.

Aethyta had such an urge to cry watching her daughter's small hands reaching up at her and yet she couldn't touch them. She wanted to cry, no, she felt she needed to wail to relieve the pressure she felt in her chest. She wanted to shed tears of joy and loneliness, the joy of a new life with a part of her in it and the loneliness of the thought that she'd never be a part of the family that was rightfully hers. Then she remembered what her father used to say to her, "We krogans, we got the short end of the deal, we face extinction and nobody cares to lift a finger to help us. Do we cry about it? No!" So she left the hospital, left Armali and left Thessia altogether. She came to Tuchanka, to seek comfort in the Tuchankan desert, to listen to her father's voice in the old ruins, to feel the krogan part of her, the tough nail grinding into hardwood part of her that her father had instilled deeply within herself in this very desert, and let the desert strip away her self-pity.

But her father's desert did little to dampen out the first cries of her infant daughter or her bondmate's melodic laughter. The desert that had filled her with the joy of life and wondrous adventures seemed muted and empty at that moment. Aethyta let her tears fall into the empty desert and let the sand absorb the precious water. "I suppose a good friend would laugh with you and be there for you when you needed to cry too." Later she reasoned when she said her goodbye to the Tuchankan desert.

Standing with her old friend again, with her daughter all grown up and standing right in front her seeking the reason why a father would abandon her own child, Aethyta felt the same pressure in her chest as she did before. No, she would not do that in front of Liara. She would not let the trembling that she felt rising from her gut and threatening to overtake her body and wreak havoc through and leave her shaking like a leaf in the wind. She would not defend herself with lame excuses in front of her daughter. She called up her father's voice in her mind, "We krogans don't cry!"

Aethyta looked down at the long scar on her hand, a reminder of her oath and the seal of the fate of her family. Nezzy had made an attempt of protest at what she called a "barbaric ritual", "You don't need to spill blood, Thyta. I only wanted your promise."

Aethyta ran the sharp knife diagonally on her palm, "I'm doing this to show you how serious my promise to you is in exchange for the promise you made to me for our daughter. You'll let her live her own life, not tie her little wings before she learns how to fly on her own."

Aethyta closed her hand and walked back by the fire and Liara followed her this time. "Your mother had her reasons to keep me away from you and they were her reasons, not mine." Aethyta started slowly.

"And what were your reasons for not to tell me who you are after my mother's death?"

Aethyta sighed. "You accepted me so easily as a friend. I didn't want to fuck it all up by telling you that I was your father, the person you might have hated all these years for not being a father to you. I didn't want you to hate me."

"Did you love my mother?"

"Of course I loved her!" Aethyta felt the ache coming back in her chest. "Look! I had hopes, okay? I had hoped that one day when you spread your little wings and found a place in the world and the pureblood bullshit or whatever else your mother was worried about for you wouldn't matter anymore, Nezzy and I could get back together. You want to know how stupid a person who's in love can be? There it is. I'm the stupidest person in the galaxy and I squandered a century of experience with my daughter and that bastard asswipe Saren robbed me of my only hope with the love of my life. I…" She couldn't continue anymore. The weight was too great and her legs could no longer hold her body, Aethyta sunk to the ground. There was no price to put on true love and there was no measure to express the loss of that love. The only tangible thing Aethyta could feel was the weight of her body and the pain that numbed her mind and dulled her senses. But a hand on her shoulder and a gentle voice brought her back, Liara was suddenly next to her, kneeling, head tilted to meet her eyes.

"That loss you feel, that I can understand, and for that, I am very sorry."

Aethyta's eyes welled up. "I wish I had been there to save her. How was I supposed to face you when I didn't lift a finger to save your mother? What would I say to you if you asked me where I was when Nezzy needed me? What you have done for Shepard, I should have done for Nezzy. But instead, I acted like a coward and stayed out of her life. Thinking it was for the good of your future. How dumb was I? How could I not see that my brutish ways were what Nezzy needed to ground herself and without me beating some common sense into her once in a while she'd drift to the deep end and let that asswipe sweet talk her into the craziest idea that ever existed?"

"You blame yourself for Benezia's fall into Saren's hands?" Liara hadn't expected this from Aethyta.

"Entirely! If I were there, I'd have slapped her back into her senses. After we separated she had slowly drifted apart from her friends, even Malayne told me once that she missed the old Nezzy. That asswipe must have recognized her isolation and taken advantage of her. If she had brought the idea to me or Malayne, we'd have told her how stupid it was. You don't sleep with your enemy! You just don't. I should have fought tooth and nail to stay with her. I should have found a way." For the first time since Aethyta heard about the death of Benezia she asked the question out loud. "How in the hell could I let her go that easily?"

The silvery light of ghostly grey frosted the horizon. Shepard stepped out of their small tent and walked a few paces toward the first hazy light of the morning, behind her, the desert was dark, and night's chill still lay in the sand. Suddenly a figure appeared over the nearby ridge, Shepard reflexively put her hand on the pistol by her hip and saw Aethyta racing back to the camp.

"What's happening?" Shepard searched the face of the Matriarch who was on the night's last watch.

"A pack of varren has surrounded a group of female krogans. Get everybody up. We need to help them!"


	26. Chapter 26 The Tuchankan Desert Part 2

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty-Six – The Tuchankan Desert Part 2**

Four fully armed and armored desert travelers lay on their stomachs on top of a small sand crest under a pewter sky in the first light of the morning. Over the small dune, a pack of varren circled three female krogans who had ensconced themselves in a slight ditch at the base of a gentle slope. One of the females held up a small pistol aimed at the varren that was pacing back and forth not far from her while another female huddled on top of the third one who looked larger than the others. Shepard whispered to her companions through the comm. "There are five varren, if we each take one out you think the female krogan with a pistol can take the fifth one out before it attacks?"

Aethyta replied in a low voice. "Only if she shoots it right between the eyes, but she doesn't look much like a sharpshooter the way she's holding that pistol."

Of the group, Shepard was the only one who carried a sniper rifle. She gave the order, "I'll take out the one on the far right. Aethyta, Liara, use your biotics to keep the beasts away from the females. Grunt, you charge for the one on the very far end. Our first priority is to protect the krogans. Let's hope we can scare off the varren with our attack, if not, I'll try to pick them off."

Aethyta muttered, "Trust me, they won't run from their prey."

On Shepard's signal, her three companions took off down the hill. Aethyta and Liara's bodies flared brightly as they move, the energy about them crackled in the quiet desert morning. Grunt pounded his large feet into the sand, faster than everyone else, shotgun bobbled in his large hand like a toy. Shepard pulled the trigger. An agonizing cry from the beast pierced the air as it dropped on its side. The other four varren turned and faced the newcomers but kept their krogan prey behind them. Aethyta stopped her dash and extended her arm. With a thick column of biotic energy, she pulled the large varren's body, like plucking a bug from a leaf, and threw it overhead behind her; then she resumed her dash to stand next to the krogans and turned around while pulling the trigger on her shotgun that was aimed at the dazed varren.

Liara didn't stop. She dashed pass the varren and reached the female krogans first, then she turned around and sent out a large singularity field that jerked the varren's body into the air. It landed between them and the hill where Shepard took her second shot and the varren never had a chance to stand up again.

Grunt didn't stop either. He charged into the kill zone head first while shouting to the female krogans, "Get Down!" With his downhill momentum, Grunt stepped on the dead varren's body that Shepard sniped first and leapt over the huddling krogans as he opened his arms wide and embraced the varren who had launched its attack at the female krogans. Two large bodies met in the air and the pair rolled off sideways from the impact, tumbling as one, the krogan's deep war cry and the varren's higher pitched shriek accompanied the movement. When they finally stopped rolling, the krogan was on top, his newly minted shell armor embedded its tips in the varren's neck.

The last varren hurled its body at the female krogans, eyes glimmering in the dark and its large canines pointed out. Both Aethyta and Liara instinctively erected a barrier in synchronization, waiting for the heavy body to impact the shield. A different sounding sniper rifle came from behind them and the large caliber shell ripped apart the leaping body of the last varren, and it landed a couple of feet away from the group.

With all the beasts dead, the desert returned to its usual quietness just before dawn. Shepard docked her sniper rifle and hurried down the hill. "Is everyone alright?"

Both Aethyta and Liara gave Shepard a nod and Grunt stood up, picking off pieces of varren skin and flesh from his artificial shell with a big grin on his face. "The weaponsmaster was right, this thing is great for head butting."

Shepard turned around and faced the bodies of the beasts again, checking for any sign of movement. Seeing none, she turned to Liara and Aethyta, "Who took out the last one?"

"That'd be me." A voice came from behind the female krogans. A much slimmer female krogan in green head cover and matching veil walked briskly down the small hill on the other side of the ditch. Without looking at the strangers, the green veiled krogan docked her sniper rifle and went straight to the oversized krogan in a red head cover and red veil. "Are you hurt?"

As the other two females who stood guard for their red veiled companion made way for the sniper, Shepard's party saw a female krogan lay on her side in the sand, a hand holding her stomach and her body, almost twice the size of her green veiled companion, was trembling. "I'm not hurt. I'm okay, sister." Her voice was low and weak.

The green veiled krogan knelt down next to her large companion, "You shouldn't just wander off like that. You should have woken us up if you want to take a walk in the desert." Seeing her sister struggle to sit up, the green veiled sniper slid her arm under her sister's body. "Let's get you back to the camp." With a loud grunt, she helped the krogan in red into a sitting position while supporting her weight with noticeable effort.

Aethyta gasped. "You're pregnant!" She grabbed the large female's free arm and tried to lend some help to get her up, but the krogan's trembling legs gave in and she slipped down again.

Shepard shouted over to Grunt, "Grunt, could you give them a little help here?"

Both Aethyta and the krogan sniper responded immediately. "No!" And the sniper followed up with, "No male is allowed to touch a pregnant female."

Aethyta gave the green veiled sister a disapproving look, "Why is she traveling with your younglings? Where's her surrogate?"

Aethyta's knowledge of the krogan female tribe calmed the suspicious bordering on hostile look from the sniper. "We had some difficulties in our tribe. Me and the twins are the only capable bodies for traveling right now." She pointed her head at her other two companions who wore no veils, only head covers. Their attention had shifted from protecting their clan sister to staring at Grunt.

Aethyta motioned for Liara and Shepard to help. It took all four of them to help the pregnant krogan to stand up and it took another good long moment for her to feel steady on her feet. Finally, the red veiled krogan spoke in a more solid voice. "I'm Cyga. My clan sisters are escorting me to the burial ground not far from the right of passage arena. My baby is due soon."

Her clan sister's hard stare returned. "Why did you tell strangers your name?"

Cyga put her hand on her sister's shoulder to seek support for her heavy burden. "Sister, they rescued us from the beasts. When desert gives us a gift, we have to accept it graciously. It's a good omen." The well composed words and clear mind behind them persuaded her companion.

Shepard looked at Cyga, "You're going to delivery a baby at the burial ground?" She shifted her gaze to Aethyta. Aethyta only lowered her head and docked her shotgun. What a gruesome idea for such joyous event! But Aethyta knew only too well that joyous outcome rarely materialized, most krogans' babies were stillborn, this way at least you were at the right place to send off the dead.

The green veiled krogan conceded once again to her companion. "Fine. Maybe they'll become useful if we run into the Blades Brothers again." Noticing the newcomers' inquisitive stares, the sniper explained. "The Blades Brothers are frequent travelers on this road, always ready to attend some challenge at the burial ground. They camped where you are a day ago."

"How did you know where we camped?" Shepard asked.

Cyga shook her head slightly. "There's very little she doesn't know about the desert."

The two traveling parties merged for the day's journey towards their destinations. Shepard's party had decided to escort the female krogans to the burial ground first. The young twin sisters who knew the way to the burial ground walked with Grunt in the front, asking him why his shell looked different from other krogans' and where he sported the sleek head armor. Shepard and Liara guarded their rear while Aethyta and the krogan female sniper walked beside Cyga.

In the mid-day, they entered the ruins of the ancient city Falcon. Roads were covered in sand but on top of the steps the party stopped at a courtyard where stone benches and giant stone fountain structures still stood. The krogan sniper and Aethyta helped Cyga find a comfortable spot on a bench to sit and rest. Aethyta took out her dry water canister and handed it to the pregnant krogan who accepted it graciously. The sniper in green took off without saying a word, but both Cyga and Aethyta understood that she'd stand watch for any sign of trouble. After the slim krogan disappeared behind a large stone column, Aethyta struck a conversation. "She's very protective of you."

Cyga nodded. "She's a good clan sister. Wasn't raised in the tribe though. She was picked up at a young age by a turian when we used to offer varren hunting tours. She was the guide and he fell for her. He took her to Palaven and taught her how to shoot and live in colder air."

Watching the twin sisters trying to climb a defaced building while Grunt supported their feet with his shoulders, Aethyta smiled. "Your clan sisters, they look like they're having a good time."

Cyga chuckled. "Yes. They're still young."

"So are you." Judging from the shape of her shell, Aethyta put Cyga's age at younger than a hundred.

Cyga looked at the asari, surprised again by how much she knew about krogans. Then she turned her gaze back at her sisters and the young krogan male. "When I first got pregnant I begrudged every minute of my sisters' play time that wasn't on my dance card. They were my playmates, but since the baby has been growing inside of me, feeling his heartbeat in sync with mine, I'm no longer interested in the game they play."

Aethyta shook her head. "I still don't think it's a good idea to give birth without a surrogate. Who will summon the ancient spirit? Your sniper sister?" Cyga had told Aethyta that an illness swept through their tribe and the midwives who usually accompanied soon-to-be mothers as their surrogate were too sick to travel.

Cyga nodded again. "Yes, she has claimed that task. Even though she doesn't have the experience, I trust her spirit and her heart. I know I'll be scared, but the shaman of my tribe told me that if I let fear travel through my most inner defense, and let it reveal what it sees along the path, I shall see it clearly within myself, fear will no longer be there, only I remain. I'll remember that at the scariest moments."

The hot wind picked up a swirl of sand at the corner of the ruins, Cyga sighed. "I used to think being in the desert is being free, the infinity gives you untouchable sense of freedom."

"You don't think that way anymore?" Aethyta asked.

"Not since I started on this journey. Now the desert means either a life of joy or a bundle of doom. But the shaman in my tribe said my pregnancy is different from others and my baby is the strongest she'd seen in a long time." She shifted her gaze from the twins and Grunt to the sky. "But still I shall miss the desert. The hot wind and simmering horizon."

The timbre in her voice made Aethyta's heart ache and she remained silent. Cyga saw the sadness Aethyta was trying to conceal and she closed her eyes. "As soon as he can hold a gun they will take him away from me, kick him into chaos whether he's ready or not. I will be back to breeding again." Krogans valued the females whose offspring lived as prized commodities and only the biggest clans could afford to keep these females as breeding mothers in temperature controlled compounds. Cyga offered Aethyta a big smile, "But I'll have something most of my clan members don't, a son and he will make me proud."

Not long after Aethyta helped the tired mother-to-be lie down on the bench to take a nap, the green veiled sniper raced back to the courtyard. "Hurry, we have to hide her. The Blades Brothers are coming!"

Shepard's party helped move Cyga to a small alcove below the steps on the back of the courtyard, and when they came back to the front, several fully armed krogans stood on the steps with their weapons leveled. Their armor looked dusty and some had fresh bloodstains on them. "They must have won the challenge at the burial ground," Aethyta muttered under her breath. "This is just great. They're looking for more trouble to get into."

As the krogans moved slowly up the steps, surrounding the traveling party, a guy with a grey shell yelled at his companion, "Hey look, the outlanders are enjoying the shade here in our sacred city."

The large krogan with a speckled shell who acted liked the leader of the pack nodded to his friend in an agreement. Then he turned to the group they'd surrounded. "You haven't heard? The varren hunting tours are canceled. If anyone hunts the varren in this desert it's us, the natives."

The grey shell looked at Shepard and licked his upper lip. "This one looks tasty. I've never had a human before."

Grunt pumped his shotgun, "You touch her and you die."

The krogans with dusty armor let out a round of laughter. The leader with the speckled shell tilted his head at Liara and said to his friends, "I prefer asari, they are tender when they are young. And this one looks very young."

It was Shepard's turn to cock her gun. "You touch her you die too."

Not to be outdone by her companions, Aethyta pumped her ancient shotgun; the large gear was the loudest without the modern weapon's smoother mods. "If you lay a hand on any of my kids, you all gonna die!"

The speckled shell unsheathed his large knife from his back and held in front of him while his friends watched and laughed. The sound of a sniper rifle went off, and the big knife in the large krogan's hand was ripped out and it flew into the nearby stone column, its blade shattered.

The female krogan in green walked onto the courtyard with her gun aiming at the speckled shell. "Bough, you leave these people alone. They're our friends."

Bough's angry face turned soft as he picked up the hilt of his broken sword. "Alright, we won't bother them anymore. But do you have to break my favorite sword? I just won it at the last challenge."

His friend with the grey shell docked his shotgun. "Not you again. We're just about to have some fun."

The female krogan pointed her gun at the grey shelled krogan, but Bough positioned himself in front of the female. "Wow, calm down. He didn't mean anything by it. Put your gun down, okay?"

The grey shell muttered behind his leader. "I don't know why you're so scared of a female."

"Because she knows this desert the way you know your own quad. She can summon a thresher maw if she wants to. So no messing with her alright?"

"Hmm! Females!" The grey shell muttered again and turned to join his other brothers who had gathered at the base of the stone fountain.

Bough waited until the female lowered her gun and he let out a sigh of relief. "I thought I smelled your scent. Why didn't you come to the burial ground and find me? Didn't you see the dagger of varren's tooth I left you?"

The green veiled krogan reached into a strap on her leg and took out a knife and tossed it to the male krogan. "Stopping sending me advances, Bough. I already had a mate and I don't need another one."

"Had is the operative word here." The male krogan argued as he strapped the dagger to his leg armor, but before he continued, a loud scream came from behind the courtyard. The female krogan turned around and broke into a run.

Cyga sat in the alcove with the twin sisters supporting her back and Aethyta kneeling next to her. The pregnant krogan held her stomach and screamed in pain. The sniper got down next to her. "What's wrong? Is the baby coming?"

Cyga screamed once more and then she tried to regain her normal breathing. "No, not yet."

Aethyta put her hand on the pregnant krogan's belly. "It must be the stress. At this stage when baby gets irritated and does his power kicks in the womb, it's excruciating for the mother."

The green veiled female held Cyga's hands as she continued her cries of pain, but finally the pregnant krogan calm down and slipped into a restful sleep in the twin sisters' arms. The sniper walked back to Bough whose face fell when he saw a pregnant krogan who was about to give birth. "Why didn't you tell me your clan sister was headed to the burial ground to have a baby?"

"Why? So you can call in others to claim her?"

"No, I'd have called in the tanks and take her there instead of having her walk all this way." Bough's voice was sincere, but he saw the doubts on the sniper's face. "What? You don't trust me?"

"How could I? You males only bring us suffering. You want us to mate, fight each other for us, but when you've had us, we are either tossed to the desert when we don't produce babies or into the dungeon to serve as nurses for our children and then only to watch them killed in some meaningless war or a stupid challenge." She saw the deflated look on Bough's face, she sighed. "If you really want to help, call in those tanks of yours. I don't think she's up to walking much longer."

That brought a wide smile on Bough's face.

With Cyga struggling with unsettling baby, the group decided to spend the night at the ruins while waiting for Bough's tanks to get here the next morning. It was a lot easier to set up tents and start a fire with old buildings and broken columns blocking the desert wind and swiping sand. Shepard's party took a corner of the quad courtyard, and Aethyta sat on a corner stone bench by the fire. Grunt wanted to hang out with the male krogans who camped on the other side of the courtyard and show off his shell armor.

Liara sat down next to Aethyta and dragged Shepard to sit next to her. "This seems such a sad affair. It doesn't seem fair that she has all this hope and the odds of her baby surviving…" The young asari shook her head.

"It's an oppression is what it is. I don't like any form of oppression, and this is the most atrocious one I've witnessed." The day's events had taken Aethyta's mind away from Liara. Now with everyone settled in for the night, she turned her attention back to her daughter. "You know, this is how your mother and I met, discussing genophage."

Liara's eyes widened. "Where was that?"

"At an asinine party for politicians on the Citadel. That was when I still bothered wasting my breath on politics. This salarian was pitching a science project for funding to the Council, curing some rare disease that led to infertile eggs. I brought up the krogan genophage and he just blew a gasket, saying salarians were worth the trouble and krogans weren't. So we started arguing and it got so heated that everyone who was in the discussion just left. Your mother came over and slipped something in his drink that made him giggle like an idiot."

"My mother drugged someone in broad daylight?" Liara didn't know if she should laugh or gasp. "I find that unbelievable and extremely amusing."

"The idiot started giggling and talking about some salarian opera and started singing at the top of his lungs. He was good at it too. People who didn't know him thought he was hired to sing at the party and kept asking for more."

Liara broke out in laughter that stopped Aethyta's heart for a beat. That laugh sounded so much like Nezzy's sometimes. After the salarian started singing, Benezia had slipped a hand through Aethyta's arm and led her to the small adjacent lounge next to the party hall. "You can't argue about genophage with a salarian conservative party member. He would have forsaken a whole roost of eggs just so nobody would insult the salarian's brilliance at solving the Krogan Rebellion problem."

At the time, Aethyta didn't see the humor in Benezia's rescue, she had full heartedly prepared herself for a head butt with that salarian and his bodyguards. Aethyta knew Benezia very little, she'd seen the other Matriarch many times across the aisle at meetings and heard her speeches, but they traveled in very different political circuits. Benezia interfaced more with foreign affairs while Aethyta focused on solving Thessia's problems: building a stronger military, researching Mass Relay and even building their own relays. When Benezia pulled her arm and practically dragged her into the small lounge by force, Aethyta shook her arm out of Benezia's grasp once they entered the small but richly furnished room. "That idiot needed a lesson and I was going to give it to him." She made a milder motion of a head butt.

Benezia only smiled faintly and walked over to the table by the wall and picked up a glass. She walked back to Aethyta and took her hand and dragged her to a settee. "Sit and drink." No room left for argument in that voice.

A waft of air came from the small glass in Aethyta's hand- she was surprised that the drink Benezia handed her was ryncol. How did she know that was her drink? And she was more surprised at herself for following orders so willingly from a stranger. It wasn't usually an easy task to talk Aethyta out of a fight especially one that was for a worthy cause. Aethyta looked up as Benezia turned around and fetched herself a tall flute of sweet wine from the same table and sat down next to her, their knees almost touching. The floating dress on Benezia looked weightless, trailing behind her as she glided about. Her movement brought a scent that reminded Aethyta of a warm breeze perfumed by spring blossoms from her mother's garden, those deep and rich plum colored flowers, delicate yet spreading the persistent sweet and hunger inducing smell. Benezia's hand held the flute gently and the lips that touched glass were delicate like those deep purple flower petals. Benezia closed her eyes briefly as she swallowed a sip of her drink and she let out a pleasant sigh and then she focused her eyes on Aethyta.

The warm color on Benezia's cheek and her sparkling eyes that seemed to be searching for something when she looked at Aethyta made the half krogan suddenly felt exposed, naked from her thick hide and tough shell, her mind was stripped blank by the flicker of those long eye lashes and the faint smile that seemed barely hidden under a graceful composure. She wanted to say "you're beautiful", instead Aethyta gulped down the ryncol in one swig and put the empty glass on the small end table next to the settee, buying time to collect what was left of her composure. The half krogan who usually favored terse words that expressed her feelings much more directly suddenly wished she could say something elegant so that she could bring that faint smile into full blossom. The salarian's singing voice still rang in the background- he was indeed quite good. Aethyta cracked a smile. "He'd make a much better singer than a politician."

Benezia's face turned into a full smile and her large blue eyes turned into half moons like the one Aethyta used to watch on a summer night as a child when her mother told her huntress stories and her own old battles during the Rebellion, with the same smell of the purple flowers at the background. Aethyta didn't know how long she'd been staring at those clear blue eyes until Benezia put a hand on hers and only then had Aethyta realized her hands had turned sweaty and fisted her dress so tightly that her knuckles had turned pale. _For fuck's sake!_ _Why am I nervous?_

"He's indeed a droll fellow, isn't he? But why are you so interested in the genophage issue? It's not on anybody's docket nor in anyone's heart."

"Someone has to be. Isn't it supposed to be our job to bring voice to those who have none?" After clearing her dry throat, Aethyta found her voice.

Benezia took her hand away from Aethyta and tilted her head to give the issue a moment of thought. "But they don't have a unified body to organize and negotiate their interests even if the Council budged on the issue."

Aethyta relaxed her hands and responded. "It's not hopeless, you know. Sometimes all it takes is just one person to make a difference. I'm not saying it's me, but we all have to try to do things we believe in."

"Even one that's as far fetched as curing the genophage?"

Beauty wasn't something that attracted Aethyta often, but Benezia had something else, something deep within her. And it wasn't just those captivating eyes and graceful steps, but a strong mind that commanded your desire to seek her approval when you thought you needed none. Had those almost challenging words come from someone else, Aethyta would had served up a volatile response, but Benezia's eyes seemed to peer below her skin with an infinite curiosity, transmitting something Aethyta wasn't conditioned for. She suddenly had a desire to win this Matriarch's support. "Have you been to the DMZ?" Aethyta asked.

"Yes, I have."

"Have you met a female krogan who had a stillborn baby?" Aethyta's voice added a bit of edge.

Benezia was silent this time, the tightening jaw and staring eyes on Aethyta's face told her everything she needed to know and she was wise enough to realize that she couldn't imagine the suffering this brutish asari had witnessed in person- the raw power of the torment must have been overwhelming for the second hand suffering to manifest this strongly.

Aethyta simmered down, _easy, this isn't your enemy._ The image of a female krogan begging her father to end her baby's life was something Aethyta's father had never recovered from. Most krogan babies were stillborn, but this particular one was a fighter. Even with his fate already been decided before birth, he fought to breathe, in the amount of agony no one could imagine in that deformed body. He'd die only a couple of torturous hours later and Aethyta's father was asked to end his suffering with kind of mercy only a divinity should possess. But he did it for the wailing mother who first cried for the fate of the baby, then for the brief life it lived and then for the death of what others wouldn't pay any cursory attention to. Aethyta's eye welled up at the memory and once again her hands fisted unconsciously.

The slight upturn of Benezia's painted brows and the warmth in her eyes said she understood the suffering. Aethyta was surprised again at how quickly Benezia, a stranger only moments ago, could calm her inner turmoil with marked ease. Those blue eyes and flower shaped lips were already distracting enough for a serious political conversation, now Aethyta could add an increasing rhythm of her own heartbeat to the list. Removing her gaze from Benezia's face, Aethyta looked down at her own fists. "They view their suffering as their own burden to carry. But my father had helped in many ways, I could do no less."

The range of emotions displayed on Aethyta's face and in her body language struck Benezia at her basic self, the part of her she guarded from people around her, people who often debated moralities or amoralities glibly, sycophants who whispered words in her ears like whispering to goddess, and those aristocrats by birth who flattered themselves with labels of noble purposes. Yet here sat someone who she had never paid any attention to, who never laid any claim of noble doing, whose rough edges were laid bare for everyone to see and judge, she possessed something far more superior than those who Benezia had spent her long career to ally. In the presence of true nobility and raw emotions, Benezia felt suddenly naked and it was deliciously liberating.

"You have a painful candor we seldom see in politics." Benezia's praise had a weight only life long politicians could fathom, those who spent their time perfecting the art of concealment in many forms and appearances.

Aethyta wasn't one of them. She looked up briefly at Benezia and then returned her eyes back on her own hands, and whispered in an almost deflated tone. "It's painful, huh?"

"All the more attractive." Once again, Benezia's hand covered Aethyta's. "The krogans couldn't have found a better voice than yours."

Liara's warm voice startled Aethyta back to the present. "Is that how you fell in love with my mother?"

Aethyta couldn't stop a chuckle, "You think your dad was that easy? Of course not. It was much, much later, after your mother was caught in a singularity field and barfed like a sick dog."

Liara moved closer to Aethyta on the bench, and looked at her intently. Aethyta stared at Liara's face, so many of Nezzy's features hidden there and when she looked closely by the dancing fire, so much was revealed in an unexpected way. Aethyta looked up at the moon, "You know that scarf you seem to treasure so much? Well, it was mine. I gave it to Nezzy before she left me. She never told you how she got it, did she?"

Liara shook her head.

"It was on a planet in the Silean Nebula after we colonized it. Some of the locals hired a merc army to wage a war against the asari colonists and the natives who supported us. Your mother was sent to negotiate a peace treaty and Malayne thought it was a good idea for me to tag along since your mother and I met at that party. Maybe Nezzy had been talking to her about me or I don't know, maybe Malayne sensed danger. But when we were waiting at the temple to meet with the leaders we were ambushed by the merc army. They overwhelmed us by number and took out the commandos who escorted us. Thank the goddess there is a head on Shiala's shoulder and she called for reinforcements to go after us when we didn't come back as scheduled, or your mother and I would have bought it right there."

"What happened in the temple? And what did that have anything to do with the scarf?" Liara's eyes glittered reflecting the fire. A melancholy rose within Aethyta as she moved her gaze from Liara's face to the fire. She had thought she was going to die, and the only thing she regretted while laying on the cold stone floor was not to kiss Benezia.

After their commando escorts gave their lives to protect the Matriarchs, Benezia and Aethyta were left on their own with no more medi-gels and a small clip of ammo in each of their pistols. Aethyta's leg had been shot through by a rifle bullet and in desperation Benezia smashed the glass that displayed a shroud that was believed to have covered their goddess, and used it to bandage Aethyta's wounded leg.

Aethyta joked, "You've become one of the looters now." They could hear the mercs smashing glasses and toppling cases to loot the temple.

Benezia gave her a nervous laugh, "Either that or watch you bleed to death. I'll take my punishment. We're going to need a miracle to survive this, Thyta. Perhaps the goddess' grace will shine upon us now that you're wearing her sacred shroud."

Based on the knowledge they had of the place, the two Matriarchs decided to move into the inner sanctum where priestesses used for small meetings. It had more secured doors and reinforced wall for sound proof. The temple occupants were sent on a field trip to give the Matriarchs the space for the negotiation.

Benezia pulled Aethyta up and they started moving towards the back of the temple. A small group of mercs reached the room they were hiding in, two batarians and a krogan with biotics power. The krogan saw the Matriarchs trying to escape, he threw a singularity field at them. Benezia pushed Aethyta down, but got caught on the edge of it and her body went flying. When she landed on the floor, she tried to get up but doubled over, holding her stomach. Aethyta saw Benezia holding her stomach with one hand and pushing another hand on the floor. She knew her companion would start throwing up. A singularity field had a way of rearranging your insides, Aethyta knew, she'd been caught in one before. Aethyta gritted her teeth at the pain from her leg, she readied herself, and when the krogan raised his gun aiming at Benezia, Aethyta charged. She threw her body into the krogan, and as they both went down on the ground, Aethyta opened fired at the two batarians who were behind the krogan. When they both dropped on the ground, Aethyta jumped up and aimed her pistol at the krogan. The trouble was the krogan had his pistol aimed at her as well. Aethyta lowered her gun and challenged him, "Want to fight like a krogan?"

The krogan docked his pistol with a smirky smile on his face. Before he said anything, Aethyta launched her surprise attack with her head connecting with the krogan's right eye and then a kick in the quad. The krogan went down without a whimper. Aethyta quickly stumbled toward Benezia who was still heaving on her knees. Aethyta grabbed Benezia's arm and threw it over her shoulders and dragged her into the sanctum. "Come on! We've got to move before more of them show up."

The circular sanctum was small but had high ceilings with carvings of divine figures on the walls. As soon as the large door shut securely, Aethyta dropped Benezia's arm and fell on the floor herself.

Benezia had stopped heaving but still held her stomach. "We're in a bad shape."

Aethyta wanted to get up but she couldn't feel her legs. She replied through her chattering teeth, "Speak for yourself. I'm doing just fine." An attempted smile turned into a wince.

"You're cold. You've lost too much blood." Benezia pushed herself up and moved next to Aethyta. She took a deep breath to will her stomach to settle down and gathered Aethyta's shaking form into her arms. "Perhaps I can keep you warm." She tightened her arms, and took another deep breath as she shook with Aethyta's wracking body. "Stay with me, Thyta. Don't let go."

Through her tightening jaw, Aethyta blinked to fight the blurry vision. "Not going anywhere." She dug her hand into the back of Benezia's arm, and tried to keep that grip as the connection to the warm body as Nezzy's voice started to fade.

A loud boom shook the ground. Benezia instinctively raised the pistol at the heavy door and her other hand tightened grip on Aethyta's shoulder. Aethyta reached for her own gun too, but the metal parts on the gun rattled when she tried to level it, it felt too heavy and her hand was trembling. She blinked again, this time at the door, and she was relieved that no intruders came. Two more booming sounds kept them alert.

"What in goddess's name is going on out there?" Benezia wondered out loud.

"Either our reinforcements are here and fighting their way back here or the mercs are going at each other for the loot. Let's hope your prayers for the miracle worked." Aethyta's energy for keeping her gun steady was spent but she refused to lower her shaky hand.

Benezia saw Aethyta struggle to keep her gun leveled, and she put her own gun down and took the gun from Aethyta's hand, "Lower your gun Aethyta before we hurt ourselves." As soon as Benezia took the weight away from her hand, Aethyta's arm dropped on the ground and her head started dipping into Benezia shoulder.

Benezia cupped her hand on Aethyta's face and shook it gently. "Thyta! Look at me. I know you must be tired. But try to stay with me for just a while longer."

Aethyta no long felt cold, in fact her body felt feathery light and her mind and vision were turning white. The warm hand Benezia put on her face felt like heavy weight that was dragging her consciousness back to the loud noise outside and to the sound of Benezia's voice that was drawing out, almost singsong like. She wanted to move her hand from the ground to Nezzy's hand that was holding her face, but she realized that it was quit impossible. It was difficult to draw breath or keep her eyes open. Aethyta wanted to grunt, grunting always made her feel better and it often fit in many occasions. With all her might, Aethyta let out a grunt, but she heard only a low whimper. She tried once again, this time it sounded much better. Pleased with herself, Aethyta tried to smile when her eyes focused on Nezzy's face. It was the most beautiful face Aethyta had ever seen- Nezzy was smiling back at her, her eyes turned into those damn alluring moon on a mid-summer night again! There were tears over the surface of those moons, but that only added the mystic power through the clear water. It was both open and bottomless. Aethyta wanted to walk through that silvery veil and immerse herself into clear water.

Benezia once again checked Aethyta's leg wound. Blood was still sipping through the make-shift bandage. Tears rolled down on her face, "Goddess, please!" She looked up at the temple's ceiling and murmured.

Aethyta heard the prayer and saw the tears changing the hues on Benezia's lilac lips, somewhere within her gave her the strength to say, "I should have kissed you the first time we met."

Aethyta's clear voice startled Benezia. She looked down at Aethyta's face, and saw a cocky smile. Benezia burst out laughter. "I wanted to fuck your brains out the first time we met."

It was Aethyta's turn to laugh, but her laughter sounded no more than small wheezing and it took all she had to stop herself from trembling again. Sensing Aethyta tensing up her body, Benezia stroke the wounded asari's face. "Shh... Take it easy."

It took Aethyta a minute to calm down again and she whispered, "So why didn't you?"

Benezia let out a nervous chuckle, "At our age, one mustn't appear too desperate." When she looked down again, Aethyta had passed out.

Help finally arrived and Aethyta woke up on the way to the hospital. Benezia was clutching Aethyta's free hand that wasn't stuck to an IV needle, the miracle shroud between their palms. Aethyta asked weakly, "Will I see you when I wake up again?"

"I'll be by your side."

Liara once again brought Aethyta back to the present with her question. "You fell in love after that?"

Aethyta took a moment to focus her eyes on her daughter's face. "No, we fucked after that which was fine by me." Seeing the uncomfortable shift in Liara's posture, Aethyta snorted, "What? Can you blame me? After you see that rack!"

"Father!" It was the first time Liara had ever called Aethyta that, and she just wished it wasn't for stopping her from over sharing.

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed. You inherited them too. I'm sure Shepard enjoys… exercising them as much as I did Benezia's." Aethyta made a motion with two hands turning large knobs.

Shepard jumped up from the bench and made an attempt to leave, but Liara grabbed the sleeve on Shepard's underarmor and gave her a look that said "Don't you think about leaving me with my father while she was on this topic". Shepard settled back down and shook off Liara's hand that was holding her sleeve and took it into her own hand.

"I don't understand why kids are so shy nowadays. It's those simstims' fault, hiding your feelings and making the other one figure it out on their own. What's wrong with just telling them how you feel?" Aethyta looked straight at Shepard, "Tell me you don't enjoy a beautiful rack!"

Shepard mummed without letting out any words. Liara's hand in her grip tightened enough to make Shepard's palm sweat. "Um… um… I do enjoy it. I mean, I enjoy hers." When she turned her head to look at Liara, she saw a flushed face looking back at her. "I mean, she has the most beautiful breasts I've even seen on an asari." Shepard's hand got dumped. "I mean, she is the most beautiful person I've seen." Her lover turned and moved away, "And she's so smart."

"Just like her mother." Aethyta watched the human with a most amused expression. This human who seemed to have the power to move the entire fleets of the galaxy was lost for words when it came to describing her lover. Aethyta pointed at the small tent Liara disappeared into, "I think you mean to go after her."

Right! Shepard jumped up again and disappeared quickly into their small tent.

Liara was already unclasping her armor. She saw Shepard ducking into the tent but she returned to the task at hand, taking a piece of arm guard off.

Shepard wrapped her arms around Liara. "So, are we going straight to sleep or doing something else?"

"Don't expect something else after that display out there." Liara made a faint attempt to get free.

"What? You know how much I appreciate your body and I've told you how many times." Shepard played the innocent.

"But you shouldn't have discussed it with my father!"

"She put me on the spot. What was I supposed to say?"

Liara thought for a moment and stopped stripping her armor and sat on their sleeping pad. "I'm sorry, Shepard. I'm just a little tired these last couple of days."

Shepard sat down next to her. "I know. But you're doing great." As she started taking off Liara's armor for her, she said softly. "I wanted to tell her that I love the smell of your skin, how the way you walk makes my stomach all tingly, how the sound of your voice melts my heart like you wouldn't believe, the way you bend your head and look up at me from the corners of your eyes when you want something from me, it turns my knees weak, and when you touch me, I want to shout to the whole galaxy that I'm the luckiest person that's ever lived. But those are private things I won't share with anyone but you." Half of Liara's body was now exposed and Shepard started kissing her favorite spots. Seeing Liara move to lay back, Shepard smiled a cocky smile. "Although I should also have mentioned how great your ass is in addition to your rack."

Liara slapped Shepard's face lightly. "Then wouldn't you want to kiss said ass to show your true appreciation?"

"Yes, but why rush when we've got all night?" It was handy that the Blades Brothers had offered to keep night watch.

The desert at sunrise was breathtaking. The hint of orange first stained the horizon as the sun started its journey, then the stronger color poured in and brightened the desert from darkness into light in a blink of an eye. Quickly the white heat followed and the orange horizon was gone, replaced by the silvery blue that drank your vision.

Aethyta ducked out of her tent and glanced at the small tent that was still tightly shut next to her. Shepard must have gotten her way with her daughter for them to sleep in. Aethyta smiled. Across the courtyard, the krogan female sniper approached her, "I wanted to tell you that Bough and his guys are going to take us to the burial ground in their tanks, and also thank you again for your help with the beasts yesterday."

Aethyta took her hand and shook it. "I wish you and Cyga good luck." Before the krogan in green turned around, Aethyta asked, "Can you really summon a thresher maw?"

The krogan in green laughed. "No, I let them think that way. There's a large control by the entrance that opens the underground gate that blocks the thresher maw's direct path. If you use that control to open the gate and get a few varren make some noise above the ground, a thresher maw will likely hear you and come for you."

Aethyta was about to pack up her things when a loud scream came from the other side of the courtyard, "Cyga!" Aethyta and the rest of the people who heard the scream gathered to the female krogan's camp and heard one of the twin sisters shout, "The baby is coming now!"


	27. Chapter 27 The Tuchankan Desert Part 3

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty-Seven – The Tuchankan Desert Part 3**

"Only clan members are allowed to help the birthing mother," the female sniper explained to the people gathered on the steps of ruined city center. But Cyga had elicited Aethyta's help. After the green veiled krogan and Aethyta disappeared behind the column, the rest of Shepard's party waited in the courtyard while Bough and his Blades Brothers hung back with the tanks that had just arrived in the morning.

Morning was filled with intensity. Cyga's screaming, her clan sister's chanting and the occasional barking from Aethyta for more hot water came through the thin tent that the krogan clan sisters shared. The cacophony had the group waiting outside on edge. The Blades Brothers brought fresh water in their tanks, and using the exhausted heat from the tanks' engines, they heated the water for the birthing mother. Grunt had taken up the task of transporting hot water from the tanks to the twin sisters who were the only ones that had come out of the tent since the delivery began. He handed a small bucket of hot water to one of the twins, "Hey, is the little brother coming soon? I want to show him my new armor shell. And if he has a growing shell like mine, I'll tell him where to get strong armor like this one before he can grow his own."

The young female smiled at Grunt, "If we're lucky, she'll take a day and the baby will survive."

"Tell him to hurry up, would you?"

Shepard had kept their fire in the courtyard burning and Liara had started making a large pot of stew with varren meat courtesy of the Blades Brothers. Nightshade had made this varren meat stew for her and Feron at her last dinner on the Big Whale before coming to Tuchanka, and the assassin had shared the recipe with her. Grunt took some stew in a large skull shaped bowl to his new brothers by the tanks to share and came back with more hot water, dried varren meat and a request for seconds.

It was well into the afternoon before Cyga's screaming had died down and the chanting from the spirit summoner had stopped. Aethyta emerged from the tent and climbed stairs onto the courtyard and sat heavily on the bench, exhausted. Liara walked over to the bench with a small container of varren meat stew and a spoon. She squatted in front of Aethyta and searched her father's weary eyes, "Is Cyga doing well?"

Aethyta nodded, "She's resting now. The poor thing is exhausted."

Liara held the container and spoon to Aethyta, "So are you! You haven't eaten since last night. I made some varren meat stew, Grunt is taking some to the sisters."

Aethyta's hands were shaking- Cyga had been grasping them in moments of excruciating pain. Aethyta shook her hands to get the feeling back. Liara sat down next to her on the bench and waited patiently with food. Aethyta took a bite of the stew and she froze. "Who…" She had to clear her voice, "This was my secret varren meat stew recipe! Who taught you how to make it? Your mother never learned cooking!" Aethyta's wide eyes prompted Liara to check her omni-tool.

The recipe from Nightshade had a link to an appendix that she hadn't noticed until now. Liara tapped on the link, and a message popped up.

_This was your father's secret varren meat stew recipe. She sent it to your mother along with a love poem about an old tree. The key ingredient is the Tuchankan Desert Sage, which I have included in your seasoning pack. -Nightshade_

"The Tuchankan Desert Sage." Liara breathed out.

Aethyta ate the stew in silence but her mind was preoccupied with the memory of the first time she made this for Nezzy, at the T'Soni manor.

It was two springs after their adventure at the colony temple, and Benezia had invited Aethyta to spend a holiday with her at the T'Soni manor. Benezia had extended many invitations for Aethyta to join her on diplomatic trips, political events and parties, but Aethyta declined these invitations. The half krogan was notorious for her quick temper and frequent head butting, and when Aethyta liked someone she could be loquacious but when she didn't like someone she had no problem keeping an awkward silence. She didn't want to embarrass Benezia in front of other people. But she had never turned down any opportunity to be with Nezzy alone.

It was the first time Aethyta had ever set foot on the property, and Benezia offered her a tour. They had started walking from the main entrance towards the front lawn.

The lawn was sprawling and the T'Soni mansion stood back from the landscape. Everything was carefully manicured, the grass, the flowerbeds and the pond. But a large fruit tree stood starkly in the middle of the emerald lawn, with its heavy branches and rich green leaves. A landscaper would say that the tree was interrupting an otherwise harmonious garden. But its sheer size and stubborn way of reaching out to the sky exuded an air of confidence as though it was saying to those who might judge it against its surroundings, "Go ahead, criticize me as you wish, but I will still be here when all of you are long dead and gone."

Aethyta's attention focused on the old tree. "That's the best feature on this property."

Benezia hid a smile as she gave her companion's hand an approving squeeze. "Most people think it's an eyesore on this otherwise perfect lawn."

"I like fruit trees. They remind you what's important." Linking arms, the Matriarchs started their slow walk towards the fruit tree.

"So do I. When I was little, my mother sent me to live on a farm that produced four kinds of fruits. The harvest supported not only our tables but also our morale. Oh, the mirth at harvest times! I didn't want to leave the farm when it was time to go." Breathing in the sweet scent of the newly opened flowers on the fruit tree, Benezia put her other hand on their linked arms. Her training to be a leader of her people started at a very young age, military training, speech training, and living on farms, in fishing towns and industrial cities. She always loved these new experiences and hated it when she had to leave, but the fruit farm connected her to something deep inside. Holding a perfect, sweet fruit in her hands, the young Benezia marveled at the beauty nature and time had created from nothing but a branch that looked dull in the wintertime. The simple joy in busy farm life had brought her closer to her surrogate family. For a long time, the young asari had wished her surrogate parents on that farm were her own, she preferred their simple language, free of secrecy and unconditional love. "I'd have this entire front lawn turned into an orchid if it were up to me."

Aethyta looked at her with an amusement. "Isn't this your property? Are you not the mistress of the land? You can do whatever you want with it."

Benezia didn't return Aethyta's gaze. "There are certain traditions I must perpetuate, including this lawn that's the location for many important political and religious functions. But I made a small concession for myself." They were standing in front of the fruit tree now, Benezia looked up at the thick branches, "This used to be two trees when they were still young. They gravitated toward each other as they grew and eventually they merged, closed the gap between them completely and thriving as one."

The admiration for the arbor softened Benezia's face. When her fingertips brushed the thick tree trunk, it made Aethyta swallow. The light touches generated small rustling sounds on the bark and when Benezia's hand stopped moving, her fingers gently held a small cluster of new leaves from an overhanging branch as though they were touching soft flower petals. Aethyta forced herself to remove her attention from Benezia's fingers and stop the urge to peel off Nezzy's tightly fitting dress and attack every inch of her body with her lips under the shade of the fruit tree. Aethyta pounded her palm on the bark. "Good, solid body, like an old tank. I love it, Nezzy."

"Old Tank?" Benezia let out a soft sigh, "A good name for a good friend. The longer we live the fewer things manage to stick with us. Old Tank has been here with me for a very long time, but only you cared to give it a name."

Benezia shifted her gaze from the branches to Aethyta. The half krogan was looking at her, no, she was peering through her clothes with a poorly concealed, almost lascivious stare. When the half krogan realized, after it was much too late to pretend that she wasn't stealing glances from the other Matriarch, she removed her eyes.

Benezia fought and barely succeeded at concealing a smile. "You have way with words that tend to touch my heart."

Without warning, Aethyta took hold of Benezia's arms and pushed them against the fruit tree, her lips eagerly sought Benezia's deep purple flower shaped lips. "Old Tank as my witness, I love you Benezia T'Soni."

The memory's intrusion ended when Liara handed her a cup of fresh water. Aethyta accepted the water and took a small sip, but she didn't look up. "How did you figure out it was me?"

Liara's voice was surprisingly soft. The anger that had fueled her words and eyes only a couple of days ago was no long there. "The way you touched the fruit tree in the front lawn when I invited you to my mother's house..."

Aethyta murmured. "The Old Tank."

Liara nodded. "Mother used to say that that tree wasn't just a tree, it was a witness to a long period of happiness in her life, a period filled with new hope and new excitement in her twilight years. She said it has a name, Old Tank. Someone named it. I asked who that was, she didn't say."

Aethyta's eyes suddenly filled with moisture. "That was when I fell in love with your mother, when she showed me the Old Tank."

Liara inhaled a long breath before her own eyes welled up. "You said you let her go, but it was I who didn't hang on to her. It was I who abandoned her and _let her go_."

Liara's barely contained tears made Aethyta's heart skip. She saw the same regret and guilt in her daughter's eyes, the same torment that had haunted her ever since the news of Nezzy's death came. Aethyta hesitated, but she took in a long breath as well. "Would you show me how Nezzy died?"

Father and daughter held each other's hands and entered a memory meld. Liara showed Aethyta the events in that grim hot lab on Noveria, the smell of acid and the captured and tortured rachni queen in the cage behind Benezia, the few short moments Benezia had with Liara, free of Sovereign and Saren's voices courtesy of Shiala, the love and regret in the parting words, then the fierce battle with Geth warships, the Normandy losing one of its thrusters and the Matriarch driving her ship into the final enemy. But it wasn't until Liara shared what Shepard had shared with her in their meld, how Benezia handed the Miracle Scarf, as Aethyta had come to call it, to Shepard, with her shaky hands and heavy stare, as though she was handing the fate of her daughter into the Spectre's hands, that Aethyta's hands started shaking.

"It holds immeasurable value to me as it's the only thing I have left from Liara's father." Benezia's voice quaked at the word "father", and tears ran down on her face. "I thought I was saving the galaxy for both of them. I've let Liara's father down once, I'll not let her down again. I'm doing this to protect Liara, the only promise I've made to her father and kept it with all that I had all these years. And I pray to the goddess that those whom I've loved and hurt will grace me with their forgiveness one day, even after I'm gone."

Benezia looked down at the small fabric in her hand, and slowly she moved her hand to her lips and she closed her eyes and kissed the scarf, saying goodbye the same way Aethyta did when she gave Benezia the scarf. Shepard had painted Benezia's death as a hero's death that helped protect the galaxy, but in truth, Benezia died protecting her daughter and her lover.

Aethyta let go of Liara's hands and she gripped the edge of the bench tightly to prevent herself from collapsing. Liara ended the meld and when her eyes turned blue again, she saw Aethyta's head bent, her shoulders slumped over her chest and her body was racking in a soundless sob. Liara didn't hesitate, she got down on her knees in front of Aethyta, and she took her father into her arms and let Aethyta cry on her shoulder.

"It's alright, father. It's alright." Liara's own tears started again, but the bitterness that usually accompanied the tears she had shed for her mother didn't come. As she held her sobbing father and stroked her back and whispered words of comfort, Liara knew that Benezia was watching them right now and that she was smiling.

"A thousand years old, and I still don't know crap!" Aethyta finally straightened her shoulders and wiped her eyes. "I thought she didn't care about me anymore. Thank you for showing me that, kid."

Aethyta hadn't cried like this in a very long time, not since she had watched Liara's birth. She had told herself to toughen up and forget about Nezzy; she had told herself she'd find peace in whatever arms that would hold her. But at the end of the day, she realized that it was all bullshit. She wished she were holding the familiar body when she slept, not some stranger who gave her a good fuck. She realized what she'd lost every time she went to a place she used to visit with Nezzy and swore that she'd never go there again. The smallest things made her reach for ryncol bottles, things Nezzy gave her for her birthdays or a love poem she had written for Nezzy, but no amount of alcohol could satisfy the starvation she felt without her Nezzy by her side. Nezzy used to like reaching her arm around Aethyta's back and resting her hand on her bondmate's shoulder when they took a walk, Aethyta missed the feeling of the weight and the touch of Nezzy's hand. Even that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was when she was drinking and staring at Liara's holophotos, the emptiness she felt when she watched her daughter growing bigger and bigger and she was missing every minute of it. The pain was so unbearable that Aethyta asked herself: was it all worth it?

Like so many big things during that period of her life, it happened under the Old Tank when Benezia asked her bondmate to give her a child.

Benezia had just come back from a trip to the sacred temple where only five top Matriarchs were allowed to enter the sanctuary in the back. She invited Aethyta to join her on a night walk in the front garden. The path to the Old Tank was lined with patches of flowerbeds and flagstones. Benezia stopped in front of a flagstone.

"We are here but for grace of goddess." Words of Matriarch Dilinaga preserved on a burnished plate shone in the moonlight.

Benezia had been in the sacred temple with Astrana as their fronted Oracle, she knew the truth of their "goddess' grace", she knew that decisions she made helped the evolution of her species, just as her mother and Malayne's mother had done in their duty as the top Matriarchs who were granted access to the temple. But not all the five Matriarchs had the foresight of preserving their precious "resource" the way their foremothers had taught them to. Matriarch North with her relentless plotting wanted even more power and Matriarch South with her copious wealth sought even more wealth. And they had no trouble using the "resource" hidden in that temple to get the edge they needed. Only because Benezia and Malayne's influence to have a common goal had prevented the Grand Matriarch at the time to eliminate the two greedy Matriarchs from their secret pack, which both Benezia and Malayne argued that the action might cause internal conflict or even a civil war.

Seeing their ancestor's words in the moonlight on the flagstone, Benezia wondered where was the grace if their goddess wasn't the divinity everyone worshipped? Was she doomed to struggle with her beliefs? Benezia sighed. At such times when she was too lost in her tangled web of thoughts, she often looked to Aethyta for answers. The half krogan had a way of cutting through the clutter and seeing what it was at the core, but this was one question she couldn't ask, one secret she was forced to keep from her bondmate. All five Matriarchs had sworn an oath of secrecy to never reveal the Prothean resource hidden in the temple.

"Of course there is a goddess! How could you even doubt that? I hate the mumbo jumbo Astrana spewed out as much as the next asari, but she does communicate the will of our divinity." Aethyta was never one to visit the temple often, but she never questioned the existence of their goddess.

Many a time, Benezia wished she could tell Aethyta the truth behind the sacred temple and whose word Astrana was really voicing, but she knew the other Matriarchs would have her head and Aethyta's if she breathed a word. But keeping such a big secret from her bondmate often clouded Benezia's mood.

Aethyta had never reviled her for her seemingly unfounded religious concerns, but she deeply resented the secrecy between them. And it wasn't just a casual secrecy; it was a secrecy at the deepest level, at the core of her people's survival and the balance of the galaxy. "You bottle up everything inside, Nezzy, it'll tear you apart one day and take us both with it." Aethyta had tried to hide the reproof in her voice but Benezia heard it nonetheless.

"I don't want to hurt you but I have to keep the tradition." Benezia argued, but she knew when she looked deep into herself she could not face Aethyta's trust. When Aethyta accepted Benezia's proposal to be her bondmate, the half krogan had only one request: always be honest with each other. Aethyta had seen what secrecy had done to her own parents who fought on opposite sides in the Rebellion war and how it eventually blew up and they killed each other. It wasn't because they fought on different sides, the war was long over and the wound healed with time. It was the secrecy and the distrust that angered them both; the secrecy created a gap between them that no passage of time or tender words could close. Aethyta detested secrecy with a passion and it hurt when she realized Benezia was keeping a big secret from her.

"What do you want then?" Aethyta pressed the issue.

_I want a life that isn't mine, but the circle has to remain unbroken. _Benezia sensed she was falling prey to the same pretension to power that she saw claimed her parents' relationship. Clearly seen from the inside, yet she found she still couldn't break the rules and damn the punishment that might follow, the same inability that had stopped her mother sharing the truth with her father, the same inability that stopped her turning her own front lawn into an orchid she would so adore. It would not do if she thought of herself more important than her duties, or her relationship more precious than that of her parents', she was bred to be a leader and she would not forsake her people's future because the weight of the secret was forcing her bond to fall piecemeal. _If I could have the Old Tank in my garden, then I shall have a child with the one I love before it's too late. A child who will live on after I and all the other old farts are long dead and gone, she will be a symbol of proud love that was once glorious and tender, like those fairytales in songs. _

"I want to have a child with you." In the moonlight and under the branches of Old Tank, Benezia proposed the idea to Aethyta.

Even in luminous moonlight, Aethyta could see the shadows in Benezia's eyes and they were not the shadows cast by the tree branches and leaves, but shadows from within. She sensed the divide between them, growing inexorably and she was powerless to stop it. _Is this the right time to bring a child into this?_ It was a prescient warning of a union that was coming to an end, but Aethyta paid no heed to that warning. A child with Nezzy would be a special kid. They still loved each other, or at least Aethyta knew she still loved Nezzy deeply. How could she turn down an offer to produce a fruit of that love?

The conception didn't close the gap that was growing wider, and Aethyta's anger was harder and harder to mollify. She sensed the dichotomy in Benezia and had tried to probe what her bondmate was hiding from her in their meld, but she was unsuccessful and the helplessness made her angry. Nezzy knew what was tearing them apart and she made no effort to repair it. Instead she was forging ahead to the direction that would pull them further apart to the point that Aethyta saw it as a subterfuge to get rid of her from her family. She confronted Benezia.

"I can't disturb tradition!" Benezia went for her usual defense.

"Damn your tradition! It's yours, no mine! I know what's mine. The kid in your belly is mine, you can't deny my right to be her father!"

"Even at the price of your daughter's happiness." Benezia knew she was hammering nails on the coffin but she'd already made her decision. "Just today, there was a report in Armali that a child killed herself because her friends bedeviled her for being a pureblood. Do you wish for your daughter to suffer as so? And what if Matriarch North gets wind of this? Do you think she won't use it against us or against our child?"

It was that thought that had weakened Aethyta's resolve, the thought of her kid being mistreated, oppressed even, because of who she was, like the krogan kids Aethyta grew up with, whose fates were determined before they were even born. It was much the same for purebloods in her own society, no justice for her kind, no fairness. Aethyta had fought very hard to give a voice to the krogans and she certainly didn't want her own kid to be treated like that.

The day Aethyta realized there was no turning back for her and her Nezzy, she took out the Miracle Scarf and sat down with her bondmate. "I don't understand you sometimes, why you keep things the way they are even when you hate it, why you can't turn your own damn yard into an orchid that would please you, and why you think I can't make you and our kid happier than you would be on your own, but I get that your family made you this way and you can't escape it, just like I can't change the way I am. But if I promise you that I leave you alone, you have to promise me one thing, you let her go her own way. If you treat her like a baby bird, Nezzy, she's going to raise hell of a storm with those little wings. "

Aethyta brought the scarf to her lips and kissed it, and after she put it in Nezzy's hand, she took out her dagger and prepared to cut her hand open.

Cyga's cry brought Aethyta back to the Tuchankan desert. Liara had sat next to her on the bench, listening to the tales of her parents. Cyga's screaming came again. Aethyta stood up, "I'd better go and check on her." Liara gave her father's hand a squeeze.

Overnight, the wind had picked up and a storm swept through the ruined city. The Blades Brothers had brought the tanks closer to block the howling wind and punishing sandstorm. But in the morning, when the wind had died down and everything was quiet again, the female krogans' large tent was quiet as well. The screaming from the birthing mother, the intensive chanting from her sisters and shouting from Aethyta that encouraged the mother to push had all but gone. No baby's cries followed and the still morning air was suffocating.

One of the twin sisters came out again with a bucket of dirty water, but her steps were slow and then she gave up and sat down on the stairs and let the bucket drop and the water spill into the sand.

Grunt walked over and picked up the empty bucket and put it next to the young female, "Isn't the baby supposed to cry? Why doesn't he make any sound?"

The young female shook her head. "He isn't breathing, Grunt."

Grunt didn't grasp the meaning of her words. "I wanted to show him my new shell armor. How am I going to do that if he doesn't breathe? Can't you slap him or something to make them breathe?"

The female krogan quickly grabbed the bucket and hurried back into the tent, leaving the young krogan first in confusion then consternation.

A crowd gathered in the courtyard but nobody said anything. The female sniper came to the waiting group and scanned the searching eyes. "The baby's stillborn. The mother has requested Grunt's help to take him to the burial ground, if he's willing."

Grunt who stood behind the group heard his name called, and when everyone turned around and looked at him, he asked, "Why me?"

Inside the big tent, Grunt knelt down next to Cyga who was holding a small bundle and asked in a low voice. "My sisters told me you had a pure heart, a strong krogan yet devoid of the violence the native males witnessed in this desert. I want a pure soul to company my baby's pure spirit to the resting place. Would you do me the service and my baby the honor?" Cyga raised the small bundle to present it to the young krogan.

Grunt stared at Cyga's shaky hands that were holding the delicate body, and he could almost see the soft shell through near sheer fabric wrapped around the tiny shape. The soft shell on the baby looked almost translucent, and Grunt was hesitant to touch it, too afraid he might break it with his large strong hands. With only a moment of hesitation, Grunt unclamped his head armor and turned the v-shaped shell over and let Cyga put the bundle in the dip in the center of the armor. He held the armor shell steadily when Cyga patted the baby's shell lightly then brushed over the small face that looked deformed. "I had such hope for you, but I'm not disappointed in you. You may not have drawn breath in this world but you were alive when you were within me and you were a part of me. You'll always be a part of me even when your spirit has gone to our forefathers." Cyga stopped, unable to continue to voice her goodbye.

Grunt waited patiently holding the armor shell and when he saw Cyga's trembling lips that couldn't bring words out, he waited longer until the mother gave him a final nod. Grunt stood up careful as though not to disturb the baby from his sleep and he offered the mother. "I give you my word of honor that I'll send him off like he's my own little brother."

Bough met Grunt in the courtyard and put a hand on the young krogan's shoulder. "Little Brother, we'll take you to the burial ground in our tanks."

When the Blades Brothers and Shepard's party climbed into the tanks, Aethyta stayed behind to say goodbye to her female krogan friends. With the outcome of the stillborn baby, Cyga and her clan sisters would take the long trek back to their base camp to rejoin their clan.

Aethyta understood that these female krogans were survivors. They were conditioned on Tuchanka from birth but that didn't lessen the sadness for the stillborn baby or the hopeful mother.

"Don't be sad, Matriarch." Cyga tried to comfort Aethyta. As her sisters packed up the tent, Cyga looked out into the desert, "This is the crucible where we test our resolve and it shapes us into krogans. You might think that I have every right to feel angry and grim, but I won't do that. If I let myself feel that way, I'm telling my sisters that I'm more important than them, that I've suffered more than our mothers, our aunts and our grandmothers, but I haven't. I shall stay in the desert, my home."

It was almost mid-day when they arrived at the burial ground. Grunt stepped carefully among the loose bones at the edge of the large circle marked by stones and littered with bones and carcasses. He slowly put down the head armor shell with the bundle on it, and stood back. As he straightened his shoulders, there was a new poise about him that Shepard hadn't seen in him before. She understood. The first cut was always the deepest and hurt the most. She experienced that on Elysium and she could see the changes in the young krogan.

"It's not fair." Grunt said in a quiet tone. "He has a mother who would love him yet he didn't survive. It's not fair that I'm here and he's not. I don't have anyone who would be that upset for my misfortune."

Shepard put a hand on Grunt's shoulder, "That's not true, Grunt. You have me, and you have Liara and the Matriarch. We're your family."

After the burial ground, the Blades Brothers gave them a ride to the rite of passage arena. When the tanks arrived just outside the gate, Bough stuck out his arm. "Good luck at the arena, Little Brother. Knowing you and your krannt, I don't doubt you'll pass the challenge. May your future be filled with glorious battles!"

Grunt grabbed Bough's forearm in a krogan handshake, "If what Shepard's been telling us becomes true, there'll be plenty of fighting ahead of us. And not just any fighting, it'll go down in history."

Bough's eyes glimmered, "When the time comes, you know where to find us. Be sure to look us up! Me and the boys will gladly join you!"

As the gate to the arena ground to open, Grunt pumped his shotgun. "Come on! I want to kill something!"

Inside the arena, old ruins and detritus laid at their feet. Shepard's party walked on the path leading to the performing platform in the center. The ruined structure was built stone by stone, arena seats surrounded the center stage where, at the height of krogan civilization, well nourished bodies displayed their well conditioned spirits in front of thousands of adoring fans with their thunderous roars and stumping of giants feet. There were only remnants of such a place now, stones had fallen, fauna feces and paw prints told the visitors that only wild animals called this place home.

The tempo of the day suddenly changed when Shepard hit the keystone. From every hole in the stone walls and on the ground, packs of varren appeared. These beasts looked different from the ones they fought in the desert, they had broader shoulders and longer legs; and they didn't circle their prey like the desert varren either, they came out of the ground and started racing to attack immediately. Even from a distance, Shepard could see their white teeth and their feral grins and she realized the beasts here thought of the arena as a feeding ground, attacking the steady stream of rite seekers. She shouted to the group, "Grab a cover and turn your guns to incendiary rounds!"

Aethyta tossed a dark channel shroud onto two varren making short distance towards them, and Liara saw the deep purple tendrils ghosting around the beasts, she brought up a thick thrash of biotic throw that detonated Aethyta's dark channel energy, and the explosion ripped the beasts body into the stone seats and shuttered them in a bloody carnage. "Where did you learn that, kid?"

"My mother taught me!"

"Who did you think taught that to your mother?"

"What else did you teach my mother?"

"Ion bike racing." Racing bikes had been Liara's favorite activity when she and her mother went on vacations, and it started when she was very young. Benezia would let the young asari kid win the race until Liara was old enough to truly challenge her mother.

Liara threw a singularity at another approaching varren and Shepard sprayed the floating body with rifle bullets. Liara shouted over to her father, "Did you teach her to flip the bike to cheat too?"

Aethyta laughed, "Yes, that was me. And I taught her to do that in skycars too!"

Liara spared a quick glance at her father. "You flip skycars too? Did you and Shepard attend the same driving school?"

Aethyta gave a klixen a biotic pull and Grunt followed up with his shotgun pumping out concussive shots.

The bantering between the father and the daughter stopped when they smelled strong acid exhalations and heard the deep rumblings of thresher maw beneath their feet. It was surprisingly swift and in a flash, a shadow of its large body was next to the rite seekers. Everyone opened fire but only Aethyta's ancient shotgun had large enough rounds that pelted through the thresher maw's skin. Grunt fired the rocket launcher and the missiles missed the beast as it retracted its body and moved back into the ground. As it came back up gain, the stones started to collapse under their feet and Shepard shouted, "Move!"

But it was too late. The ground opened up and the stones fell into dark tunnels under the arena. Aethyta only had the time to grab the edge of the stone platform as her body fell with the rocks.

"Father!" Liara shouted as she got down on the ground. Aethyta was hanging on the ledge over a dark chasm. It was hard to see how deep the drop was as it was too dark, but they could hear varren growling in the darkness. Shit! It was a varren den beneath Aethyta. Liara flared her boitics and signaled her father to do the same. Just as she grabbed Aethyta's wrist, a varren jumped up from the dark cave and grabbed on to Aethyta's boot and the weight dragged both the father and daughter over the edge. Liara had one hand with biotic energy wrapped around a thick stone column before she grabbed Aethyta's wrist and that string of energy was the only thing that held them from falling into the dark hole where hungry beasts were waiting with their sharp teeth. Liara grunted loudly as she strained to tighten the biotic grip on the column and fight the incredible weight that was threaten to rip her body apart.

Aethyta kicked the beast on her feet but it wouldn't budge. She heard Liara's cry for strength and shouted to her daughter, "Let go of me."

Liara flared her biotics brighter and her grip of her father never wavered. "I let my mother slip through my fingers, I will not let you do the same. Don't you dare to let go of me!"

Aethyta felt the claws of the varren digging into her leg and foot, and she flared her biotics and sent a biotic shockwave towards the varren. A shriek echoed below her, and Aethyta felt the drag on her foot disappear and she brought up the other hand and linked energy with Liara.

As Aethyta climbed out of the hole, both asari crawled to sit beside the column, out of breath. When Liara looked back to check on the thresher maw, her eyes froze. Aethyta followed her gaze. Dozens of yards away, Shepard was sprinting towards Grunt. The thresher maw stood high behind the krogan, mouth gaping wide with blue tongue hissing and wailing still from the injuries Aethyta inflicted earlier. It seemed too painful to retract but a few breaths with steam told Aethyta that it was trying to bring up acid breath and engulf them with liquid that would dissolve their armor. With horror in her eyes, Liara watched Shepard leaping into the air as she reached the krogan, and Grunt caught the human's feet and tossed her upwards towards the mouth of the thresher maw. Flying with invisible wings, Shepard reached the height of the steaming mouth and swung her arm and unleashed a sack of cluster grenades into the depth of the fiery hole behind the blue tongue. Explosions quickly cascaded through the threw maw's body, sending pieces of its flesh and a rain of acid with shockwaves that had pushed Shepard's body away before she had time to come back down. Grunt raced with his head up and dove to catch Shepard's body when she fell back down and covered her with his own large frame.

When everything was quiet inside the arena, the young krogan stood up and dragged his battlemaster to her feet. Both Aethyta and Liara ran over to them, and Liara quickly checked them for injuries.

Grunt took most of the blast and his shiny silver armor was pelted by acid on the back, but he smiled at his companions. "That was fun. Can we do that again some time?"

Shepard hit her head when she landed even though Grunt took out most of the momentum from the long fall. She stood in a daze and she shook her head to clear it. Liara started to unclamp her left armguard, and only then had Shepard noticed acid had chewed a big hole through it and her shoulder felt numb. Liara quickly ripped Shepard's underarmor and put medi-gel on the acid burned skin and sat Shepard down on the ground to bandage her wound.

Aethyta looked at pieces of thresher maw littering a large area of the arena and she turned to Shepard, "You're a daredevil, Shepard. You'll be a very bad influence on my daughter!"

Shepard took Liara's face in her uninjured hand and said in a serious tone. "Do not, I repeat, do not do what I just did!"

Back at the Bunker, Wrex sat on his stone chair in the krogan camp above ground, and his clan brothers stood around the throne. They made way for Shepard and Grunt to approach the clan leader. Wrex spared a look at Shepard and saw the satisfied smile on her face, and the krogan leader turned his attention to the young krogan. "You enjoy the walk in the desert?"

Grunt snorted. Never again would he want to see a little brother die before he had a chance to learn how to hunt varren or to walk in the Tuchankan desert, or to fight alongside a battlemaster like Shepard! The fight with the thresher maw and the fight Shepard was preparing him for took on a different meaning for the young krogan, and he was uncertain if that was something he should tell to his potential clan leader or to show his position in front of these seasoned warriors. He looked at Shepard, and Shepard gave him an encouraging nod. Shepard had told him before they came to see Wrex, "It's okay to say what's in your heart. Wrex is different from other krogans."

Though a small gathering, the tribal convocation was formed to judge his worthiness. Grunt looked at every krogan stood around them and returned his eyes to Wrex. "The desert gives with one hand and takes with all of its others."

Wrex couldn't help but give that comment a nod, and he saw a few others in the crowd nodded as well. Shepard and the Matriarch had done a great job with this one, the young krogan was no long unhumbled by life, but the test wasn't over yet. "I see you lost your head armor shell."

"I gave it to a dead brother at the burial ground." Shepard had told Wrex what happened to Cyga and her baby, and how much Grunt had taken to the females and the plan he had to show his shell armor to the baby he had called Little Brother.

"Dead krogans don't need no armor." The shaman chimed in.

"He needed it more than I do. And he deserved more too." Grunt's thought turned back to Cyga and the dead baby. "So did his mother."

"That's the life of a krogan female. She'll get pregnant again and she will likely have a stillborn again." The shaman continued.

Grunt kicked the column next to Wrex's throne, "That's not life! That's entrapment."

Wrex's face turned solemn, "An entrapment that will see the end of our people if we didn't do something about it. Genophage is no ordinary event. It's the biggest juggernaut in krogan history after the nuclear holocaust. It stomped on everything we've ever known, our social anarchy, our natural breeding, our religion and rituals. The crushing weight of this single salarian research has left nothing unmarked in the life of krogan. Our world has already ended the day the genophage was invented. We're all walking dead if we don't find a cure."

In the loftiest voice he could muster, Grunt offered his clan leader. "After I kill the Collectors with Shepard, I would like to help you find a cure for our people."

Wrex stood up from his throne and walked down the steps. He stood face to face with Grunt and looked him in the eye. Then he turned to his brothers and saw approving nods from everyone. The clan leader extended his hand to the young krogan. "Urdnot Grunt, welcome to the clan!"

In the underground bunker, away from the baking Tuchankan sun, Liara found Aethyta in the large central communications room talking with Onyx. Aethyta ducked out when she saw her daughter and found a small office along the corridor for them to talk in private.

Liara took out the Miracle Scarf and handed it to Aethyta. "This was yours. I think my mother believed that it would perform another miracle and it did, it brought you to me. I think you should have it back."

Aethyta didn't move, "No, kid. You keep it. I gave it to your mother. It belongs to you now. I've got the most important thing in my life back, and I'm looking at her."

Liara put the scarf back in her pocket and she wrapped her arms around Aethyta, "Thank you, father."

Aethyta hugged her daughter tightly, then pushed her off and cleared her throat. "I know I'm not like Nezzy, refined and always knowing the right thing to say. But I know how I feel, and I feel the connection between us, a connection that makes me want to protect you with whatever I've got left. I know I'm not your mother. Fuck!" Aethyta bit her lower lip, "I didn't help your mother when she needed me and that was on me. But I'm going to help you and Shepard with everything I've got, my fleet, my commandos and my old bones, whatever you need, just say the word, kiddo."

"You're the best father a girl could wish for." Liara's playful tone earned a chuckle from Aethyta.

Finally Shepard got Liara alone at the entrance of the Bunker, but Liara took the human's uninjured hand and led her to a krogan tent. Shepard tried to protest, "Wouldn't you rather be in the cool bunker?"

Liara walked into the tent first and then she stepped aside. "The bunker doesn't have this." She pointed at a large bathtub that Aethyta brought in for the krogans to keep fish, and Shepard saw steam rising from the bathwater and candles burning on a table next to the tub. Her eyes widened.

Liara smiled, "Grunt asked his new clan brothers to bring hot water here and G.G. supplied the candles."

Shepard let the asari lead her to the tub and unbutton her shirt and pants. The human's left arm was still in heavy bandages and Dr. Chakwas had told her to keep it dry. Liara took off her own clothing and got into the tub first and let Shepard sit on top of her so that the soldier could put her bandaged arm on top of the asari's to keep it from getting wet.

Liara gently sponged Shepard's back. "I have just adapted to Tuchanka's circadian rhythms and tomorrow I have to leave again to get back to the Big Whale."

Shepard relaxed her body into her lover's embrace and let out a small moan. "I wish we could both stay here. I've grown to really like Tuchanka."

Liara kissed the nape of Shepard's neck. "Me too. But the best thing here is you. I missed the way your hair tickles my face. I've missed that terribly." She continued her kisses and nips on the human's neck.

Shepard leaned into the asari's face, "And I missed the smell of your skin. I want to smell that all the time. And your nipples brushing my back don't hurt the scenery either." She chuckled at her own words, and Liara bit her harder on her good shoulder.

"I'm glad you got to know your father." Shepard captured Liara's face with her good hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"My father might be very direct, but she was right about you, you're a daredevil. We didn't have to kill that thresher maw, we only had to scare it away for Grunt to pass his rite."

Shepard knew Liara would bring that up sometime, so she tried to brush it off. "I'm sorry I worried you. When I get into the zone, I get so focused on completing the task sometimes."

Liara moved her face away from Shepard's hand and looked at the human in the eye. "Shepard, you can fool others with that excuse, but not me. What's really bothering you?"

Shepard let her hand fall into the water and sighed. "I have nightmares when I'm not with you. Nightmares of seeing the Normandy burning and breaking into pieces, and it wasn't me who died, it was you dying in my dream. Always you. When I saw that you and Aethyta had disappeared into that hole, my heart stopped and something inside just clicked, I saw clearly how I could take out the threat, that thresher maw, and make it all safe for you again. My mind and my body just went in overdrive, I couldn't think clearly, I could only act on my instinct."

Liara took Shepard's hand under the water. "I understand. Now that I have you and my father back, I should be happy but I am not. Every time I think about the Omega-4 relay, my heart stops. And no matter how much I'm helping you prepare, it just doesn't feel like it's enough. Sometimes I wish I was still digging dirt for a living."

Shepard brought both their hands to her lips and kissed Liara's hand. "I've been thinking about beginnings a lot lately myself, what if I hadn't gone to Elysium with Tasha and Alan, what if I had become a propulsion engineer like my dad had wanted. But in the end I'm glad it happened. Elysium led me to N7, N7 led me to Anderson and the Normandy, and the Normandy led me to you. I wouldn't want to trade that for the galaxy."

Liara rested her chin on Shepard's good shoulder, "Me either. I wouldn't trade the time I had and will have with you for anything either. But our time together just seems so short, tomorrow I'm going back to Hagalaz and you're going to visit a prison ship with the commandos. Only the goddess knows when we will see each other again. I don't want to leave you."

Shepard turned her body around, astride and facing her lover. "I hope you know how much I dislike not being able to keep an eye on you at all times. It gives me nightmares. And when we're together, when you sleep in my arms, my nightmares go away." She kissed the asari's pursed lips and slowly she moved on to the folds of her neck. She was pleased when she heard a soft moan from her lover and she gave her lover's nipples each a fleeting lick with promises of what was to come. Shepard breathed out, "Let's just enjoy tonight and the time we do have together."

Liara smiled and her face turned into Shepard's favorite blue flower. "I intend to do just that." She slid a hand along Shepard's hip towards her center under the water, and the human's body jolted as the soldier arched her back. Liara waited for Shepard's moan to deepen and she whispered into the human's ear. "Commander, you're mine tonight!"

* * *

**A/N:** Benezia had a very different death in my rendition of the ME1 stories, In Love and War. If you wish to see the entire event in which Benezia sacrificed herself to save the Normandy and her crew, you can find the chapter "Battle Above Noveria" here: s/8295194/19/In-Love-and-War


	28. Chapter 28 Stairway to Purgatory

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty-Eight – Stairway to Purgatory**

The shuttle landed on the cement patio high above the valley. The neatly lined prefab buildings sprawled below the plateau that served as a spaceport. The living area was as big as a small town, dotted with people who were moving about their daily business. Beyond the uninformed grey buildings, a grain field almost reached as far as the forest hills on the other side of the valley. It was near harvest time, and the heavy rows of wheat and barley waved in the wind, creating a view of a waterless sea. Pulling his eyes from the serene scene below, the shuttle driver took out his modded, oversized shotgun and exited the craft with his co-pilot. He walked around the shuttle and positioned himself in front of the cargo door and pumped his gun.

"Get out of the shuttle one after another!" He barked the order as he opened the door. The offensive odor of human sweat mixed with urine made him turn his head. "How many times have I told you to pee when we're at a stop? Animals!" He cursed, ignoring the fact that he had not let his captives out for nearly two days.

Bound and chained, the occupants of the cargo hold exited the shuttle one after another, carefully keeping the silvery blue energy chain connected. They'd experienced the unpleasant jolts the energy chain released when they went too far from the next person.

"You keep an eye on this lot while I fetch our princess." The shuttle driver received a nod from his co-pilot who aimed two large pistols at the subdued captives. The driver hopped into the cargo hold and walked past the stinky general storage area with his fingers pinching his nose shut. In the back of the shuttle, a metal wall carved a small area where a metal pole was welded from floor to ceiling. Energy chains circled a fully tattooed body from head to toe, tying it to the shiny pole. Inside the bonds, the small woman was sedated; only the energy rings kept her upright and bound to the metal anchor. The driver took out a ready-injector and slowly took aim at the woman's neck, careful not to touch the energy chains, and he pushed the injector. After he emptied the syringe, the shuttle driver quickly tossed the used injector and pointed his shotgun at the woman.

Slowly the woman opened her eyes and her small frame started to glow with biotics. The driver took out a device from his leather jacket pocket and warned, "I'll zap your tits off if you try something stupid."

The woman's eyes focused on the large man holding a shotgun and an energy chain trigger. She sneered at the man and with a loud grunt, she freed her hands from the omni cuffs and pushed the man through the metal door into the general holding area with a biotic wave that broke the energy chains easily. The man fell and his hand hit the metal floor and he lost the device. Before the man could gather his shotgun, the small woman was already on top of him. Straddled onto the man's chest, the woman's biotic fist pummeled his face until the driver curled up his body and held his nose that was bleeding. The woman stood up and walked towards the shuttle door. "I have to piss, you asshole!"

Inside the gate of the town, the chained slaves walked towards a small tower at the end of the main road that was three stories higher than the prefabs. The co-pilot was leading the captives in single file and the shuttle driver followed at the end of the line still holding his broken nose and moaning in pain. The medi-gel his buddy slathered on his face apparently hadn't helped much. The tattooed woman was once again laced with energy chains from neck to ankle, but she didn't seem bothered by the unusual constriction and she looked around at the people who had gathered on both sides of the road and were gawking at the newcomers. Most of the townsfolk wore their grey day robes, some carried farm tools on their backs and others pointed at the chain gang. The small woman's eyes landed on a pair of youngsters who wore white shirts and dark trousers, hem stitched on the outside. The older one, a boy, was tall with gentle wavy hair and the younger one, a girl, had large eyes and shaven head. She had a bag of newspapers on her shoulder and an animal stood next to her.

A push behind the small woman broke her stare at the kids. She turned around and looked at the driver who shoved her. Her threatening sneer was back and the shuttle driver didn't take any chances this time. He took a couple of steps back and pressed the energy chain trigger on the device in his hand, and the small woman screamed in pain and fell on the ground. The big man started to laugh but stopped and put his other hand on the tender wound of his nose again. The woman took the opportunity and leapt into the air with her biotics encasing the energy chains, and the biotic explosion that followed was so bright that everyone nearby had to shield their eyes from the light. Now the tattooed body was free of constriction, and the woman focused her eyes on the driver who had his shotgun leveled. Faster than everyone's eyes could follow, a string of biotic energy ripped the shotgun from his large hands and the tattooed body was charging at the driver. Without his weapon and a useless chain control, the man turned around and started running away from the woman as fast as his heavy legs could carry him.

Even without her biotic charge, the small woman was faster. Just before she caught up with the man, she charged past him and stopped in the front. The man slid his body on the ground to halt his mad dash; as his body slid he watched the energy ball in the small woman's hand with horror. "Not again!" He muttered.

Just as the hand rose to throw the biotic orb, a tranq dart landed on the woman's neck. She pulled out the dart and only pushed out "fuckers" before dropping on the ground.

"What's your name?" The tattooed woman woke up in a large hall draped with brightly colored banners from the cornice to the floor. The loud chatter and occasional bursts of laughter along with clinking of drinking cups on the long center dinning table told the woman that this was a banquet hall of sorts. Swiping her gaze on the men sitting on the long benches at the table, the woman tried to stand. Strong hands gripped her arms and kept her seating on the wooden chair. One of the men holding her had hair clippers in his other hand.

"What's your name?" A man in a grey robe stood out among the feasting crowd who wore black leather and metal armor. He was a slim man, his face was thin with a prominent forehead and he wore glasses that looked too low for correcting his vision.

"Jack." Still a little groggy from the sedatives, the woman shook her head trying to sharpen her vision and hearing. She answered the thin man, and her voice carried in the sparsely furnished hall with high ceilings.

A round of laughter came from the men who heard her. The thin man in the grey robe laughed with them. "I'm Zatti, the leader of this small colony." He pointed at a bulky guy in a black leather jacket that looked similar to the one on the shuttle driver. "He's Jack. You're not Jack. You're a woman. You're Jacqueline."

The man named Zatti gave a quick nod to the guy with the clippers, and then turned his attention back to the woman. "We're helping you cleanse your sins in our own cleansing ritual. Trust me, they won't hurt you."

The guy activated the hair clippers and the woman tried to jump out of her seat. "I'm not Jacqueline."

Zatti put a hand on the woman's head lightly as the clippers took off the first line of black hair. He turned to his men at the dinning table, "Friends, in our most generous spirits, we welcome Jacqueline!" The crowd raised their cups at their leader and cheered loudly.

Jack wrestled with the two men who were holding her down and screamed at Zatti as she gritted her teeth in anger. "I'm not…" Her voice was lost in the loud shouting from the crowd of diners. "Jacqueline…not!"

Zatti moved a pace back, avoiding a kick from the woman, but he wasn't discouraged by the act of rebellion. "Jacqueline Naught! Welcome to our sanctuary."

After the banquet was over and the woman had spent most of her energy fighting the two large men who did their best to keep her seated while Zatti gave his sermon and led evening prayers and singing, the leader of the colony signaled the men to bring the woman into his private study and closed the door as they left.

Zatti disrobed and revealed light maroon colored armor that was hidden under the large robe. The man looked even thinner in the form fitting armor, but his muscles were visible and well defined. "Have a seat, Jack."

Jack scanned the room for any sign of hidden weapons and surveillance. _I can destroy you!_ She thought. But then what? Where would she go with bounties on her head and slavers just around the corner? She crossed her arms in front of her and snorted. "I thought I was Jacqueline."

Zatti didn't look up, unafraid of the potential threat that he clearly knew the biotic woman posed. In his smooth tenor voice he explained: "In private, I grant you your deepest wishes and most desires. But out there, I have to rule and I have to be fair." He pushed a pack of ready-injectors on the desk towards Jack. "The slavers said you were having withdraw from narcotics. Here's something to tie you over. When you have pulled your weight for our society, I'll see to it that you get what you need."

Jack's face was a picture of surprise then an understanding quickly overcame. "So you want me to kill for you, just like everybody else."

"Perhaps and only when it's necessary. But I want you to know that killing disgusts me."

Jack shifted her weight. "You don't want to get too close to death."

Zatti waved a hand to dismiss the thought. "Not that. I'm disgusted by the idea. Killings, murders or battles, they're counter productive to survival. We are stronger in numbers and the stronger the better chance we have to survive." He peered into the eyes of the biotic as though to check if she had grasped his meaning.

Jack uncrossed her arms. "It's easy to say that when you have people to do all the shit for you." Watching a smile spreading on Zatti's face, Jack snorted. "I get it. I'm here to help ensure your survival..."

"Our survival." Zatti corrected her. He pushed the injection pouch closer to Jack, "And working towards a common goal has its advantages."

"The privilege of being your personal bodyguard." Jack was fully aware that by accepting the "gift" she had accepted the power of this mysterious man had over her, but she didn't care. In the cold night when she was surrounded by piss smelling slaves in the holding pen, all she wanted was a shot of chemicals that were beckoning in these syringes in front of her, the warm liquid she felt flowing through her veins and the euphoria she felt after she killed one of the guards who had stuck himself inside of her the night after she was picked up in Dakka system. She swiped the pouch from the desk and stuck it in her pants pocket. "I'm not wearing your pathetic robe."

Jack woofed down a meal that was put together with the scraps from the giant banquet table, but it was plentiful and it was better than anything she'd had in many weeks under the captivity of the slavers. The old man who searched the banquet table and made her the plate came back and took her empty plate away. He had only one hand and when he saw Jack staring at his stump just below the elbow, he covered it with the sleeve of the grey robe and he asked. "Would you like some more?" Jack looked up at the man's face, his eyes were watery and the lines on his face were deep. Jack couldn't tell the age of the man, but she recognized a kind face behind the weathered surface. She shook her head.

After the two guards shaved her head, a man with a tattoo kit showed up to give her the branding of the colony. Jack was actually enjoying the fact that she was getting a new tattoo and didn't have to pay for it. She was assigned to the bunkhouse just outside of the tower with Zatti's other guards who were all guys. Her bunkmate grumbled at the fact that a woman was to share his bunk, "I snore very loud, if you got problem with that, go sleep somewhere else."

"Where?" Jack couldn't stand snoring.

"Streets, storage container, what do I care?"

Jack smiled and the man turned in his bed to face the vid screen built into the wall that was displaying some kind of porn with humans and asari. Jack couldn't believe her fortune—she wasn't confined anymore, she could walk outside and hang out wherever she wished.

As nightfall quickly approached, the streets were filled with people after dinnertime. Jack wandered to the gate of the town where she had come through earlier with the slavers and she watched the guard turn on the energy fence. Not so free after all. The guard told her it was to keep wild animals from the population. He pointed at the hills surrounding the valley, "All around us, there are forests where we harvest for wood and energy. There are some large and dangerous animals native to this planet."

Shouting voices came from behind Jack and the guard. Jack turned around just quickly enough to dodge a small animal leaping in the air at the brightly lit energy fence. The biotic instinctively trapped the animal with a small stasis field just before its pink nose hit the deadly current.

"Boots!" A young girl's voice rasped from repeated shouting for the animal to stop. Jack turned around and saw the young girl she had seen earlier. The girl was out of breath and bent over to grab the animal that was still in Jack's stasis field. "You can release him now."

Jack did. "Boots!" Another set of footsteps reached them by the fence, heavier this time. Jack saw the older boy who was with the young girl earlier stopped his dash and put his arms around the girl and the animal. "Are you guys okay?"

The young girl stood up and stroked the animal's head while pointed at Jack with her chin. "Boots was chasing a mouse that just slipped through the fence before it was turned on. She saved Boots from the lightning fence."

Jack watched the boy squat down and encircle his arms around the girl and the animal, and she could see the girl shaking a little bit. The boy made small comforting sound and rubbed his fingers on the animal's ears. "It's okay. Boots is fine. Everything is okay." He then looked up at the woman and offered, "I'm Blake and this is my sister, Gabrielle. Would you like to come with us for some tea? I think my sister and my dog would like the opportunity to thank you properly."

Jack followed the pair and the animal to a small prefab unit that had just enough space for two single cots, a couple of small tables, a few crates as chairs and a wall storage unit. The boy pointed at a crate near a small alcove on the far end wall that had built-in heating unit and water outlet. "Please have a seat." The girl went to the heating unit to make tea.

"What's this place?" Jack asked.

"It's called Hog. Each prefab is assigned to house appropriate number of people." The girl answered.

"No, I mean this colony. What planet is this on?" Jack looked around the sparsely furnished room and noticed a stack of newspaper on the corner table.

"We're not sure." The boy went to the wall unit to get three cups. "They won't tell us and we don't have access to the Extranet here."

"How long have you been here?"

The boy answered again, "A couple of years. We were kidnapped when I was five and my sister was two, and we've been mostly traded to families who needed children and then decided not to keep us and sold us back to slavers."

"How old are you now?"

"I'm eighteen going on nineteen." The boy answered again.

The girl handed everyone a cup of tea and she looked at Jack, "Did you come with anyone you know?" Seeing Jack shaking her head, she continued. "Did they give you a place to sleep?"

"With the guards. But I'm not going to sleep in the bunkhouse. I saw a large container at the other edge of the town near the grain field that was empty."

Blake explained. "Workers use it as a break house during the day. There's no bed, only some crates."

Jack shrugged, "I don't need a bed. I just need somewhere quiet to be alone. Is it safe to sleep there?"

Gabrielle let out a chuckle, "After watching what you did to that slaver today, nobody would mess with you."

Jack scratched her bald head, the branding tattoo that circled her shiny head was itching. "Why do they shave girls' heads here?"

"So they can put an implant in you. It works like a tracker. If you step out of the colony unauthorized, the central control will know it from your tracker." Blake explained.

"But why don't they shave guys' heads?"

Blake rolled up his sleeve, "Our implants are in the forearms. If we tried to escape, they cut off your hand and put the implant in the other forearm. Nobody ever tried to escape twice."

The streets during the night were quiet, only the pale white streetlights washed out the starry canopy of the sky. The storage contain was giant. It used to storage grain bags at harvest time, but the robotic arm holders on each side of the container had broken off. The workers put it here to shade them from mid-day sun when they took breaks from their fieldwork. There was no light inside. Jack flared her biotics faintly and walked to the deep corner and lay down on the metal floor.

Other than the strict rules of not leaving the colony unauthorized, Jack begun to enjoy her stay in the new place. She only had to fight once with some bandits from another valley that were notorious in these parts. Zatti had asked Jack to accompany his best fighters to deal with the bandits and had rewarded her with some narcotics after Jack throw a guy into a tree trunk and broke his neck. Zatti had been very pleased with Jack's performance, "There are no good killers to be found anymore. Ones who just want to kill, not to ponder how many credits it takes to ease their conscience. I've found a good killer in you, Jack."

During down time Jack often wandered to the Hog where Blake and Gabrielle worked. Blake repaired farm tools and Gabrielle made the colony's only newspaper, from producing the content, to making the ink that printed it and the rough paper made with processed wheat stock. Zatti was amused by Gabrielle's endeavor and he allowed it. "Who reads on paper anymore, but the girl has a quaint idea." He commented once to Jack.

Jack also received more meat allowance as Zatti's personal guard, and at first she brought what she couldn't eat to Boots until she discovered that Blake and Gabrielle were given strict meat rations. She started to eat her meat allotment every other day to save up the meat for the brother and sister. Her action surprised even herself, but Blake's gently observant stare, young but strong features and reddish blonde hair stemmed her desire to rip every guy's genitals out. Jack realized it wasn't just his handsome looks that made him pleasant to be around, but his persisting gentleness, patience and kindness towards his sister and the small animal that had attracted Jack intensely. And Jack found herself softening her gaze when she looked into Blake's pale blue eyes.

Her friendship with the kids wasn't without its challenges. She had made the young girl pout at her when Jack craved the narcotics.

"When you drug yourself, you turn into… a different person." Gabrielle once commented. "What happens if you don't inject?"

Jack bit her lower lip at the thought of withdrawl. "It fucking hurts!" But Jack knew Gabrielle was right. Her dependency on the chemicals would only tie her neck closer to Zatti and she disliked the idea. "But I'm used to pain." Jack decided to kick the habit and she'd do it alone in the storage container. She didn't want Zatti to know it nor let the kids watch her.

Night was usually the toughest time when she was alone and having nightmares. Those horrid images of Teltin often sent her to grab whatever chemical she had in her pocket, but she remembered she had tossed them in a ditch by the grain field and her pocket was empty. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and Jack felt her body turning into nothing on the cold metal floor, not light but the feelings of her nerves were missing, and then came the sudden shivers of her flesh and bones, the feeling was gross. "Fuck!" She shouted, but she didn't hear any sound. _Why is my forehead burning?_

A cool towel pressed against her face, Jack opened her eyes and saw Gabrielle sitting next her and dutifully wiped the sweat from her forehead, her cheeks and above her lips. The cold dampness felt refreshing and Jack all of sudden could feel her body again, her center, her skin and her hands. The kids had moved her from the storage container to their Hog and put her in Blake's cot while he slept on the floor.

"The worst is over." Gabrielle's voice came as a soft caress. And after a week, Jack was off the narcs.

The affinity she felt for the boy and the girl came naturally, surprising Jack herself. When they found Jack bouncing a small biotic ball around Boots who chased it with such an enthusiasm that his panting had become small yelps as he clamped his teeth trying to bite into the energy ball. The small zap of energy seemed to excite him.

Blake smiled. "He's quite taken with you."

His voice startled Jack who quieted her biotics. The dog was sniffing around her feet looking for the ball that had suddenly disappeared. The girl squatted down and started to rub the dog on his head and ears and muttered terms of endearment, and the dog nuzzled his nose into the girl's neck and licked her, neither showed any reservation of their mutual affection.

Watching Jack stare at his sister and the dog, Blake added, "But he certainly loves his mommy." As though he understood the word, Boots let out a small bark to confirm the statement. Shifting his gaze, Blake pointed at the grain field. "It's harvest time." The field was buzzing with activities. The workers, the robots and drones worked as a harmonious force, shaving the crops from the field like hair. Jack touched her bald head.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Let the sunlight drench me, let it seep through the pores it touches on my skin, I am a sun child," Jack snapped the small datapad out of Gabrielle's hand who was reading from it out loud.

"Hey! That's private shit." Jack yelled reactively, and then she simmered down. "It's not even finished."

Jack had hidden behind an inactivated hovercart that the townsfolk used as a carrier to move the grain bags to storage. It was mid-day, and everyone was inside having lunch. The field was quiet and Jack often came out here when everyone else escaped the heat. Gabrielle had found her dozing and took the datapad in her hand and read what Jack had written.

"It's good, Jack. I'd like to read it when you finish it." Gabrielle smiled as she sat down next to Jack. "Why didn't you tell me you write poetry? All this time I went on and on about my ambition. You held out on me!"

"I don't. It's just… it's just how I feel. Sometimes I just write down how I feel. It's usually very dark, not like this one." Jack stuck the small datapad in her large pants' pocket. "Besides, I'm not a fucking poet."

Jack sat back down on the ground and leaned against the hovercart. She closed her eyes and tilted her face upward to get more sun. Gabrielle imitated her companion.

A high-pitched shriek broke their calm. They both jumped and hunched their backs to peer over the cart at the noise. A girl was running, hysterically, towards the empty grain field. As several guards tried to grab her, she squirmed out of their grasp, shedding clothes as they were ripped from her body, first they tore the common grey robe off, then they ripped the bright red shirt and a long purple skirt under the robe. She was now half naked, but she didn't stop her mad run towards the water tower.

Jack asked with widened eyes, "Why is she running to the tower?"

"She means to jump off of it, probably." Gabrielle gasped. "But she won't make it though. They'll shoot her with a tranq dart and take her to the dungeon."

"What happens to her in the dungeon?"

"Whatever it is, it must be worse than throwing herself from the water tower."

Jack recognized one of the guards chasing the half naked girl, his name was Jack also and he had a tranq gun in his hands. Jack wondered if he was the one who shot her with a tranq dart the first day she arrived here. It was good aim but then again, she was standing still. The hysterical girl was running madly towards the water tower, tumbling and stumbling as she went on her naked feet. All three darts missed her and the guard cursed at the running girl's direction. "God damn it! You know how expensive those tranq darts are?" He docked his dart gun and took out a short sniper rifle.

Gabrielle's breathing quickened, "They're going to kill her, not just capture her."

Jack stuck her head over the hovercart and saw the modded sniper rifle in the guard's hands. Yup, he meant to kill this time. There was no way that gun used tranq darts.

Gabrielle squatted down and tugged Jack's arm. "We have to do something! We have to save her! You're powerful, do something, Jack! They're going to kill her!"

Jack moved her eyes from Gabrielle's pale blue eyes to the cart behind her, and she remained immobile. Gabrielle tugged her again, "Maybe I'll make noise and get the guards' attention and you can get the girl into the forest to hide."

Jack shook her head. "No, something happens to you, Blake is going to give me shit. And besides, there are too many of them, you can't distract all of them. "

"But you can take them all if you wanted, can't you?"

"Probably."

"Then we have to try!" Gabrielle stood again to check what was happening when a small popping sound came and the girl's hysterical screaming stopped. Gabrielle froze.

The girl's body weltered in the new mud that the rain had beaten up overnight, and her limbs were laying about her in odd angles. All three guards walked up to the body, one of them patted Jack, the guard, on his shoulder as though to congratulate him for the kill, the third guy took out his pistol and shot the body three more times. Then they picked up the limp form and walked towards the forest and disappeared beyond the edge of the wheat and barley field.

Jack popped her head up and saw the coast was clear. She grabbed Gabrielle's arm and dragged her back into town and entered the storage container. The young girl was shaking now, "They… they killed her. They just killed her… the girl…"

Blake heard the gunshots by the grain field. Even though the guards often shot their guns at the practice field next to the growing land, he thought he'd come and check. He saw Jack and his sister had gone into the large container and he followed them in.

"What's going on?" A quick glance at his sister's ashen face and trembling body, Blake took her shoulders and turned her body around to check for any sign of injury.

Jack said in a flat tone. "The guards shot a girl. Gabrielle saw the whole thing."

Gabrielle didn't pay attention to her brother. Still shaking visibly, her eyes focused on Jack. "You could have saved her! I've seen your biotic powers, we all have. Why didn't you even try to save that girl?"

Blake took his sister's shoulders and tried to turn her away from Jack. "Come on, let's get you back to the Hog." Then he turned to Jack, "Shouldn't have let her witness that." The tone was heavy in his still thin and piping voice with thick blame that made Jack feel like shit.

The girl walked out of the container under her brother's nudging hands, but she turned back to look at Jack once again, "Would you have done anything if it were me they were after?"

Jack was relieved that Blake had taken Gabrielle out of the container and she didn't have to actually answer that question. But it rang in her head nonetheless.

Blake came back a while later and explained to Jack. "Zatti picks pretty girls and takes them to the dungeon. Nobody knows what he does to them. He usually sells them back to the slavers after keeping them in the dungeon for a while or we never see them again. Anyone who asks too many questions gets shipped off too." He paused for a beat, "Presumably to the slavers as well."

Jack crossed her arms in front of her. "It was none of my business. I got it pretty good here. I don't want to fuck it up, you know?"

Blake's usual gentle stare was replaced by something else, something Jack couldn't put a finger on, doubts, guilt, sadness, or all of them. His expressions confused Jack—it wasn't him who didn't save the girl, why did he feel guilty? Noticing the biotic studying him, Blake quickly collected himself. "I understand. I've seen the ugliness and violence in this place, and I've tried to shield it from Gabrielle as much as I can."

"Is that why you want to escape this place?" Blake had brought up the idea of escaping the colony and going back to Earth, to his parents, several times. He said he didn't need anyone to take care of him anymore, but his sister still needed someone to care for her.

Blake closed his eyes to avoid looking at Jack's searching gaze. "It was my fault that we ended up with the slavers. We were at a shopping plaza and I left my mom's sight to look at a toy car kiosk. Gabrielle followed me and we got grabbed. I should have known better, our mom told us it was dangerous in the terminus colonies." He looked down on the floor, and when he looked up again, his stare turned sharply penetrating. "But Gabrielle did ask a good question: what if it had been her that they were chasing. What would you have done?"

The following few days Jack kept busy. The harvest was almost complete and the drones had moved grain sacks on robotic platforms to the temporary warehouse, waiting for the trading ships to arrive. Jack took extra guard duty to watch the grain stock and even hopped on a shuttle with Zatti and his men to meet a merchant ship to negotiate the grain price. At night, she didn't come to the Hog. Instead she slept in the container where bugs bit her and the bird's chirping woke her early in the morning. She missed her friends and she missed Boots. On the third night after the girl's murder, she was shaken awake by two robed and hooded figures. Before she had time to call up her biotics, Blake and Gabrielle pulled their hoods back and Boots came from behind them and jumped on Jack and started licking her face.

"We're going to sneak into the forest." Blake took out another hooded robe from a large fabric bag over his shoulder and pushed it to Jack. "Put this on."

Jack followed the instruction without asking any questions, and once she put the robe on and moved the hood forward to shroud her face, Blake and Gabrielle turned and hunched behind the crate at the entrance of the container. Blake looked up at the bright moonlight and frowned a little. Then he instructed again, but this time to everyone including the dog. "Don't make any noise, especially you, Boots."

The dog wiggled his tail and spread his mouth wide into a smile but he didn't make a sound. Blake patted him on his head and said in a hushed tone. "Good boy! Keep it that way." He checked the empty streets. "Follow me." And then still keeping his back low, he broke into a run across the clearing towards the grain field.

The running party moved in silence until they reached the short barrier separated the town and the field. Blake and Gabrielle stopped and leaned against the short wall, squatting and catching their breaths. Jack wasn't breathing hard, and she started to say something, Blake put a finger on his lips to signal her not to make sound. Then after a few more moments, he led the small party into a run again to clear the distance between the wall and the field.

There was a ravine between the grain field and the training field where the guards used for target practice and combat sims. The moonlight illuminated the dark channel. Blake jumped down into the ditch and helped Gabrielle and Jack hop down, and then he signaled Boots to jump and caught him when the dog leapt from the edge. The ravine was over 7 feet deep. Blake pulled his hood down and whispered, "Don't talk, we have to hurry through this part. Some times guards patrol this area."

They made the journey quickly and quietly in the damp ravine until they reached the edge of the forest. Once they entered the woods, Blake relaxed his shoulders and slowed down his pace.

"Where are we going?" Jack finally got to ask.

Broken branches cracked under their feet, and Boots scouted ahead. "We're going to bury the redhead." Blake answered simply.

Jack remembered the guards who took the girl they shot to the forest. She hadn't thought about what they'd do with her body. Did they just leave her to the animals? "Wait, how do you know she was a redhead?"

Gabrielle answered. "We came here on the same slaver's ship. She had fire red hair and big green eyes. Blake had the hots for her."

Her brother turned his head and shot his sister a look. "No, I didn't! She gave me some food she'd hidden from the guards, I was hungry."

His sister didn't back down. "Yeah, what about the bouquet of wild flowers you left at her Hog?" The girl smiled triumphantly when she saw the surprised look on her brother's face. She knew she had made her brother blush. Blake picked up a small acorn from the forest floor and threw it at his sister as revenge. Then they both laughed.

Jack suddenly felt a wave of coldness inside and she slowed her steps. "Shit!" She hissed at herself. She sounded louder than she realized. Both the brother and sister turned back and looked at her.

"You okay, Jack?" Blake asked.

Jack stopped and pursed her lips. Even under the rich foliage, moonlight seeped through, casting shadows on Jack's face but highlighted her eyes that expressed what her words couldn't. Gabrielle moved next to Jack. "It wasn't your fault, Jack. I was wrong to have accused you. They would have killed her in the dungeon or sold her off anyway given how crazy she had turned. Zatti doesn't like girls who aren't obedient." Her reasoning didn't relieve Jack of her heavy thoughts.

"I should have tried something so she didn't feel alone in this. Even if she'd die later at least she'd known someone gave a shit about her." Jack's eyes welled up and she bent her head. _Sometimes a thought makes all the difference. I should have known that better than anybody. _When she pounded her hands at the one-way mirror in Teltin, she wondered where her parents were and why didn't they come for her, and why nobody gave a shit about her.

Gabrielle wrapped her arms around Jack. "We'll give her a good burial. She'll know that we remember about her wherever she is now."

Boots had sniffed out the location of the body and led the small party to it. Wild animals had indeed helped themselves to the carcass, but the half torn red shirt was unmistakable. Blake tossed his bag down and took out a blanket and covered the mangled body. Then he took out a folded shovel and started digging a hole under a group of young trees. Gabrielle took out several half used candles from the bag and placed them near the body and lit them up. Jack stood a few paces away with Boots and watched her friends until Gabrielle waved her over.

"We'll say a prayer for her." Gabrielle gave Jack a candle and then picked up another one and said her prayer in front of the covered body.

Jack who didn't know any prayer stared at the blanket trying to think of something to say. Finally she said, "Hey Redhead, sorry about what happened. You're probably better off where you're now." She looked at Gabrielle's amused expression, and she added. "We'll be thinking about ya."

The journey back was quiet until they reached the edge of the forest. Jack stopped and stared at her companions. "You want me to help you get out of this shit hole?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Can you do it or not?" Jack asked impatiently.

The one-handed man shushed her. "Not here! Grab that bin and follow me." He took a large bin of garbage in one hand and wedged it against his hip and started for the garbage compactor room.

Jack grabbed another garbage bin and followed him. When Jack wasn't on guard duty, she'd picked up shifts with the old man who brought her food the first day she was in the colony. He was a caretaker, garbage man, maid and he was the only one who wasn't in Zatti's little inner circle that worked in the dungeon. Jack volunteered to help him in his daily chores when she was bored and she enjoyed listening to stories the old man told her.

"They call me Luke here." He had told Jack when they first worked together.

"That's not your real name?" Jack snorted at the thought of Zatti calling her Jacqueline in public. "They like to change your names here, don't they?"

Luke only shook his head. "After they cut my hand off, the guards gave me that name. There was an old movie about a chain gang called Cool Hand Luke. I think they miss-remembered the name of the movie, thought it was called One Hand Luke."

"Idiots!"

Luke nodded. "That they are. Except Zatti. He's anything but. I'm still useful to him. That man! If he could turn the mice here to increase his profit, he would." Luke told Jack how he lost his arm. He tried to hack the tracker on his forearm and escape the colony. He was quite good at hacking computer chips and he only made one mistake: when the chip was taken out of his arm, he didn't find a suitable place to implant it. The chip would go offline when it wasn't implanted in flesh. Zatti ordered to have his hand cut off as punishment and that had set an example to those who had ever thought to try and escape.

"You never want to skip town again?" Jack had asked Luke.

"Nay. I was young back then. Had a girl I liked and wanted to go back to her. She's definitely found someone else by now and had kids or even grandkids."

Presently in the garbage compactor room, Luke flipped the garbage bin to the edge of the compactor by swaying his hip and dropped the content of the bin into the machine and the disposal gears whined loudly to start the compacting process. Luke motioned for Jack to bring the bin in her hands over. "There's surveillance in that room. Now the compactor is running, they can't hear us." Watching Jack dump the garbage in the large mouth of the disposal, Luke asked. "Why do you want to remove the tracker?"

Jack followed Luke's lead and lowered her voice. "I want to break some people out of this place."

"Those kids you always hang out with?" Luke ignored Jack's surprised look. "You're not hard to read, Jack."

Jack started feeling uncomfortable for not putting up her guard around the old man, but she asked again. "Can you do it or not?"

"I can, but I'm not going to risk your life and those kids' lives to help you try." Luke dumped more garbage into the opening.

"Look." Jack pushed herself in front of the old man. "I grew up in a… facility. Kids there were mean to me, they beat the crap out of me and tried to kill me. These're the only kids I met that were nice to me. You see the shit goes on in the dungeon. I don't want the girl to end up in there, you know what I mean?"

Luke stared at Jack for a few moments and then he patted his large workman's belt. "I've been tinkering with the disc that I used for my escape. It now can simulate any implant long enough to move it from one host to another."

"I knew you had some tricks up your sleeve, old man!" Jack slapped Luke on his back. "How come they didn't take that away from you when you were caught? Didn't they search you?"

"I swallowed it, and had to fish it out later in my own shit."

Jack laughed. "I have a plan. You just get your little shit disc ready when I ask you, alright?"

xxxxxxxxxxxx

The wait for the ship to arrive was interminably long, Jack cursed. "What fuck is taking them so long?"

Blake, Gabrielle and Jack waited by a dank wall that circled the cement spaceport, and the night chill stayed in the tall grass and the occasional early morning breeze was penetrating. Gabrielle shivered. Jack flared her biotics at a low intensity and surrounded the girl with the energy to keep her from shivering. The girl had been crying all day for leaving Boots behind and it took her brother's soothing voice and Jack's repeated assurance that Luke would take good care of the dog for Gabrielle to reach this point without turning back.

First it was a faint thruster sound and then loud booms of hydraulics releasing landing gear on the giant cargo ship came as it settled down on the spaceport. A dozen crewmembers came out of the cargo ship and walked towards the grain storage. Jack waited until they entered the large warehouse and then she turned to Blake, "Remember to hide in the small nook by the engine. Don't come out until they reached Earth. Check the flight manifest I gave you…"

Blake interrupted her. "Jack, we went through this many times. We brought enough food and water and we'll catch our own shit and piss. Nobody will know they have stowaways. We'll make it, Jack."

Gabrielle looked at Jack. She had tried hard to prevent tears, but they came despite her efforts. She put her bald head to Jack's, "I'll keep my head shaven so when you come to Earth, you can spot me when you visit us. You promise you'll come and visit!" Her tears were free flowing now.

Jack grabbed the girl's head with both hands and rubbed it against her own. "You just make it there. I'll keep my head shaven too and I'm going to come one day. You'd better have some good food and booze waiting for me!"

Gabrielle broke out in a short laugh and nodded. When she looked up she froze. In the first light of the day, she saw Boots racing towards them, his ears floating behind his head and his back making sinuous line in the tall grass as he ran. Jack turned back and followed Gabrielle's vision. "Shit! No, Boots!" The dog carried the humans' implants and he was a decoy. "Shit, shit!" Jack repeated.

Gabrielle got down and hugged Boots as he reached his owners. Jack immediately got down on her knees and checked the dog's hind legs. Both spots for the implants were empty. "Shit!"

Blake who had been watching the warehouse door warned. "Movements at the warehouse. We'd better move!"

Jack pushed them into the small loading port where a conveyer belt sat ready to admit grain bags. "Luke must have changed the locations of the implants. Boots is safe to go with you. If the shit hits the fan, shoot anyone that gives you trouble." She had stolen a small pistol that the guards used for target practice and put it in the bag Blake carried. "Go!"

Jack watched the cargo crew escort the robotic platforms with grain bags to the large ship and loaded the bags through the conveyer belt and then took off. So far, so good. She raced down the plateau in the opposite direction of the town and came to a small area where a stream made a drastic turn. The broke of the stream created a pebbly flat where a shuttle was waiting. Jack hopped on the shuttle to find only the driver.

"Where's Moody?" Jack didn't like any changes in a deal with these bandits.

The driver shrugged. "I don't know. I'm told to wait for you and pick you up. That's all I know."

Before the shuttle driver started his engine, a small caliber sniper bullet ripped through his head. Blood and grey matter spattered on Jack arm that was resting on top of the driver seat. "Shit!" Jack hit the deck.

Jack peered out the shuttle door while listening to heavy boots stepping on pebbles of the riverbank. She took the pistol from the dead drive's belt. A man's voice came from behind the shuttle.

"Jacqueline, come out with your hands in the air." Five of Zatti's most trusted guards moved to encircled the shuttle door.

"Shit, it's still open." Jack cursed at the shuttle door. Now that she could see clearly the guys surrounding her, she broke out a smile. The guard named Jack had a tranq gun in his hands—_so they don't want me dead._ Another realization sent Jack's heart fluttering. If Zatti's most trusted guys were here, it very well meant that they hadn't figured out about Blake and Gabrielle, and Luke had kept his promise. There was no doubt in Jack's mind that Zatti was monitoring these guys here. With a smile on her face, Jack put the pistol on the shuttle floor but within reach, and then she hopped out and leaned on the shuttle's doorframe.

"Guys, I'm just out here having fun. It gets fucking boring in this shit hole, you know?" She kept a smile.

The guard Jack shook his head. "You think Zatti doesn't know your little deal with the bandits who'd been trying to steal our grain every harvest? They always make deals with some fool every year to sell us out and get free food. You're the fool this year."

Jack feinted a disappointing look and crossed her arms in front of her. "Man! If I knew they were this pathetic!" The longer she held these guys here and Zatti's attention, the long the merchant ship carrying Blake and Gabrielle would be gone, and by her calculation, they should have passed the planetary defense system and well on their way to the system's Mass Relay. "Guys, don't need to point the guns. I've had my fun, you've got me." Nobody lowered their gun, Jack cursed again but didn't voice it.

The small woman waited for the guards converge on her. As the circle got tighter, she suddenly flared her biotics and quickly sent out a biotic burst that was so strong that it knocked all five guys over. Jack quickly picked up the pistol from the shuttle floor and shot four of them in the head before they had time to aim their weapons. The last guy took out his short sniper rifle from his back, but before he had chance to do anything with it, Jack pushed him into the shuttle's metal wall with a thick biotic wave and followed up with a biotic fist. The guy fell on the ground, but the small woman didn't relent. She jumped on top of him and kept pounding his face with her biotic fist. "This is for the redhead you fucking killed!"

She waited for a response, but the man was already unconscious. Jack took a deep breath before standing up and aimed her pistol at the man's head.

"You fucking useless piece shit!" She pulled the trigger four times. "I am Jack, and you are dead!"

Jack tossed the driver's body out of the shuttle and started the engine. The mother ship responded to her hail and gave her coordinates in orbit. Once Jack cleared the long valley that nestled in between two mountains, she let out a long breath. She had done it! She had saved two nice kids and she had escaped that creepy place. "I'll miss the food." Jack thought.

A holocall alert sounded on the shuttle, Jack hit the answer button. Luke's face appeared on the holo. "Jack, good to see you're out!"

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Luke? It's not safe for you to contact me right now!"

Luke shook his head, "I only have a few minutes, and I just wanted to tell you that I've put both kids' implants on myself."

Jack shouted, "Luke, that's dumb! We had a plan!"

Luke only smiled, "When they figured out who helped you, I'm dead anyway. Zatti knows I'm the only one who can hack the implants."

Jack cursed inwardly for not having thought about that. "Fuck you, Luke! Why would you sacrifice yourself for some kids you don't even know?"

Luke didn't answer her but kept smiling. "When you have your own pirate fleet, come and get me, would you? I'll work for you."

Jack's eyes welled up. "You hang in there, old man! I'm going to scorch this fucking place when I come for you and get everybody out. You just hang in there, you hear me?"

The connection was scrambled for a moment, and then Zatti's face appeared on the holo. "Jacqueline, Luke can't hear you anymore because he's dead." The holo zoomed to his back, Luke was kneeling on the floor and a guard pulled the trigger that aimed at the old man's temple.

"You mother fucker! I'm going to end you, Zatti! You fucking piece of shit!"

Zatti returned to the holo and sneered at Jack. "You might have to take a long time to fulfill that promise, Jacqueline. The ship you're headed to will take you to a prison ship that's full of the most heinous criminals in the galaxy. The bounty hunters paid a high price for your head. You might find that place more suitable for your kind."

"You fucking sold me?"

Zatti's face turned cold. "You cost me three colonists. I have to make the credits back somehow." He paused as several guards came into the room to remove Luke's body. Zatti changed his tone. "I'll pray for your spirit, Jacqueline."

"Fuck your prayers and fuck you, Zatti! You're just another common slaver and a sick fuck!"

Smoke seeped through the vents before Jack realized the shuttle was blowing nerve gas, her arms fell on her sides. "Sick fucks!"

When Jack woke up again, she saw a turian in blue and white armor towering over her chair.

"Jack, welcome to Purgatory."

* * *

**A/N:** Several have asked me when we'll see more fluff, and here's the answer. We'll have a big fluff chapter after the next. And it won't be just FemShep and Liara fluff, it'll be fluff everywhere! So get ready.


	29. Chapter 29 The Fortune Cookie Lady

**Second Life**

**Chapter Twenty-Nine – The Fortune Cookie Lady**

Two commandos escorted Aleena from her shuttle to the storage bay on the Blue Sabre. Onyx turned from a group of crates and handed a datapad to a commando, "Get the paperwork prepped." She then waved Aleena to join her in front of the crates.

"Open it." She pointed at the first crate to the pirate.

Aleena stood in front of Onyx, unarmed as the Blue Sabre comm message requested and in her brown utility jumpsuit that looked similar to the asari commando utility suits. The caretaker of the Pirate Radio Network had been sending progress reports of her troops' training to the Tuchanka Project headquarters and she even had Wrex send a few krogan warriors to her base to train the prisoners Henry Lawson purchased from Purgatory, the prisoners they liberated on the Cerberus ships that took down Pirate Radio Network. Onyx had been monitoring these reports and though she had been reluctant at accepting the pirate troops fighting alongside her commandos she had been impressed by Aleena's steadfast devotion to the preparation of the coming war and her ability to earn loyalties from those who worked for her.

Aleena smiled at Onyx's order but she made no move to open the crate. "Nice to see you too. I see all the sweet wine I've been sending you worked. I got invited to your ship."

"What sweet wine?" Onyx's face turned a deeper color as her commandos in the storage bay turned to look at her, and then she realized that it was a ruse from the pirate to get a reaction, and she huffed. "Would you just open the damn crates?"

Aleena smiled wider and bent down to open the cover. "Batarian rifles!"

Onyx pointed at another crate. "Open that one."

Aleena quickly opened it to find brand new batarian submachine guns and two large grenade launchers. She looked up at Onyx, her eyes beaming with excitement.

"We took out a couple of batarian smuggler ships that were chasing a Justicar and salvaged these." Onyx hid a smile while looking at Aleena's face. "They're for your troops."

"But they're brand new!" Aleena ran her fingers on the new submachines. "How did you get the stuffy governors to agree to release these to _me_?"

"You have Commander Shepard to thank for that. She vouched for you in front of the Matriarchs via QEC." Onyx paused, "She seemed quite taken by you creating the PRN."

Aleena shrugged. "She fought Sovereign and she won. We owe our lives to her, and when you're in that kind of debt to someone, giving her your deepest allegiance seems such a small honor to pay."

Onyx nodded in agreement. "But most people don't believe her, including the Council."

Aleena straightened her back from the crates. "And you wonder why I turned a rebel?" Seeing no argument from the commando leader, the pirate added. "Most people don't know Wrex the way I do. He trusts Commander Shepard, and that kind of trust only exists between those who are ready to die together. That's good enough for me."

Onyx stared at Aleena for a moment, marveling at how much she still sounded like a commando. Onyx had done some research on the pirate and found that she was from an elite branch that produced some of the best asari commandos. "You have turned those prisoners we rescued from that Cerberus ship into able fighters. You might not play by our rules but we play for the same goal. Your men need these more than we do. I'll need you to sign some paperwork and you can get your men move these to your ships."

Aleena stepped a few paces away to contact Klang and make arrangements to bring these weapons aboard her fleet. While she was on the comm to her ship, a commando asked Onyx, "Should we really arm pirates with these? Are you not afraid they might use them to rob ships?"

Onyx spared a quick look at Aleena who was still talking on her comm and answered her commando, "She didn't become a pirate because of impulsive greed or the need to kill or rob. And she took on the fight for the survival of the galaxy voluntarily. That's better than we can say for a lot of people. And…" She paused and glanced at the pirate again. "I trust her."

Aleena smiled, but she turned her head away.

Onyx walked to her office with Aleena in tow, and she picked up a datapad from her desk and handed it to the pirate to sign. The schematics of a ship that looked like the skeleton of a big fish were displayed above her desk.

"That's Purgatory!" Aleena was surprised to see the commando was interested in her next mission.

Onyx hit a button on her desk and the map disappeared. "Please have a seat."

Aleena crossed her arms and shifted her weight on one leg. "I prefer to stand. The view is better here."

Onyx looked up from her desk, ignoring the pirate's playful tone. "I heard you and Commander Shepard are heading to Purgatory."

Aleena nodded. "The men you wanted to condemn when we liberated them from that Cerberus ship told me that many of the prisoners were captured during the Skyllian Verge skirmish and that they were ex-soldiers trying to protect their families on the colonies, not criminals. My men want to get their comrades out. And Commander Shepard fought on Elysium herself, so she agreed to help and she also wanted to recruit someone named Jack who's being held on the same ship."

"I'd like to offer you my help. I have a full commando unit that can take both combat and support roles." Onyx offered.

Aleena gave the commando leader a coquettish grin. "First you give a girl some presents and now you want to play chivalry. What did I do to deserve such a special treatment? I thought you considered us rebels and you were on the righteous side."

Onyx's eyes cast down. "I'm not helping rebels. I'm helping you."

Aleena couldn't hide her surprise. "Why? Are you interested in me? If you wanted a date you needn't go through all this trouble. All you have to do is ask." Aleena moved to Onyx's desk and leaned on it with a coy smile.

"Another sign of a rebel: self-centered." Onyx softened her features to indicate that the retort meant no bite.

Aleena tilted her head and studied the commando's face. "So it's not about me. Yet you claim you wanted to help me. I'm confused."

Onyx sighed and steeled herself for what she was about to say. "After our last battle on the Cerberus ships I looked you up." She took a long moment that made Aleena even more curious. Finally Onyx looked up at the pirate. "You were in Halica."

The flirtatious look suddenly disappeared from Aleena's eyes. Her face darkened. "Don't ever mention Halica to me!" She made an effort to bite back her next words: I lost everything in that battle including myself!

Aleena's stare turned razor sharp and then she turned her back to Onyx and closed her eyes in remembrance. It was a long time ago but when she let the memory seep through the cracks of the wall she'd tried to build up, she could still hear her squad mates' cries in agony, and the images of them burning was as bright in her mind as the day of the battle. She could still feel the pain on her arms from the burn even though her skin had long been replaced and fully healed.

It was a fierce battle between her entire company of commandos and the batarian slavers. The intel for the battle was false but by the time they realized it, it was too late. The batarians had set a trap for them in a winter forest and set the entire perimeter on fire. The commandos tried to fight their way out, but the batarians picked them out from higher ground with sniper rifles. Most of the commandos were burned to death as they waited for the warship in orbit to come and rescue them. Aleena was shot and passed out at the edge of the forest but not before she witnessed her squad mates burned alive. As her vision faded, she saw the batarians coming down from the hills and taking the wounded with them and bludgeoning the nearly dead to finish them off. She was one of those who got captured by the slavers and spent years in slavery and eventually found her chance to escape.

"It was my fault that you and your commando sisters got captured." Onyx said without looking up at the pirate.

Aleena's voice came like a sharp knife as she turned to face the commando leader. "What did you say?"

"The warship in orbit, I was on it." Onyx could feel Aleena's burning stare boring on her and she looked up and met it. It was almost murderous.

"You must have received our distress call. Why didn't you help us?"

"We came to rescue your company and I volunteered to lead the ground mission, but our orders were to hold our position in orbit while you were being slaughtered on the ground."

Aleena bent over Onyx's desk and put her face closer to the commando's. "You knew we were being burned on the ground and you did nothing? You followed your fucking orders?"

"We watched the feeds transmitted by the ground troops on our comm monitor and saw they burned you and then bludgeoned you and took the ones alive with them to their ships. We watched the whole thing and we didn't do a thing to stop them."

Aleena didn't see the empty stare in Onyx's eyes or her clenched jaw, all she could feel was the burning heat and all she could hear was the screaming of her dying friends. "You betrayed the oath you took when you became a commando, the oath to standby your fellow soldier! You're a traitor! I should take one of those guns you gave me and shoot you in the head!"

"The thought of doing it myself had crossed my mind too." Onyx stopped and took a long breath, "I should have disobeyed that order, but I told myself I shouldn't let personal feelings interfere with my mission. I should have gone down there!" She sunk down into her chair and covered her forehead with a hand.

Aleena stood back. She finally caught something in Onyx's voice that told her the commando was also wounded by the experience of Halica. She also took a deep breath and calmed herself down. Aleena turned away from the commando leader and her hand moved unconsciously to touch her left front. An old ache came back from that spot and she jumped when she felt a hand lightly touching her shoulder. She turned quickly and was surprised to find Onyx standing right behind her. Aleena swallowed and clenched her teeth to not betray her emotions. But Onyx's stare moved to just above her left breast.

"May I see it?" Onyx's voice was tentative and low.

Aleena clenched her teeth tighter and dropped her arm. "See what?"

Onyx moved her eyes to Aleena's face. "The batarian's branding. I know what they did to the vets they captured in the Halica battle. They shamed them and treated them worse than the slaves they traded. And they branded them so that no batarian or any other slavers would buy them. They condemned them to a life of slavery only to the batarians who captured them."

Aleena's eyes were filled with tears as she started to undo the buttons on her jumpsuit. Peeling back the fabric, Aleena let Onyx see the large round stamp that used her flesh as engraving block. She remembered the agony when the red hot metal stamp was pushed into her breast, and she remembered the things that followed that made that pain feel like a walk in the park. Without realizing it, Aleena's tears fell.

Onyx touched the stamp, ran her fingers slowly, tracing over the ridges of the flesh. When her finger reached the center of the stamp she felt Aleena flinch a little. The center was a hole for an implant that identified the captives and it wasn't a tracking device that usually lodged in flesh, it was ground into the bone. And as the bone healed around the implant it became harder and harder to get out. Onyx wondered if Aleena still had it in the edge of her sternum. With the small flinching reaction, Onyx realized she had been touching Aleena and she quickly retracted her hand. When she looked up she saw tears on Aleena's face. Onyx wanted to say she was sorry, but she knew that there was no amount of remorse could save her from the guilt she felt. The commando clenched her own teeth and turned around and moved away from the pirate.

"Someone… someone whom I cared about was in your company and fought in that battle." At a safe distance, Onyx confessed. "It was why I volunteered to lead the rescue. But the order was clear: we hold our position in orbit. I found out later that the Matriarch who now controls our northern territories wanted to create a conflict with the slavers so that she could get funding to build a bigger army. That's why I left and joined the Sixth Fleet where I know I'm fighting for the right cause."

Aleena felt the chill that Onyx's fingers sent through her flesh. She could almost feel the pulsing of the implant in her bone and she was relieved when Onyx took her hand away. Her voice was as cold as her body felt. "And you judged me for being a rebel after what I've been through?"

Onyx went back to behind her desk and sat down again. "The person I went to rescue was also captured and… branded. I searched for her for a long time and when I found her she was on her deathbed, sickened by the torture the batarians had made her suffer. They treated her like an animal and used her in unspeakable ways." Her voice betrayed her, Onyx stopped for a moment to fight the tightness in her throat. "I hate slavers and pirates who trade slaves. I didn't know you were in Halica until I read your records."

They stayed at opposite ends of the small office; each felt the wound on themselves and in the other. Aleena finally broke the silence. "So that's why you want to help me. For your own redemption?"

Onyx didn't argue. "I checked the records on Purgatory and found out who they are holding there. I want justice for those ex-soldiers who don't belong in a prison."

"It won't help those who were captured in Halica." Aleena knew she was belaboring the obvious.

"I know that." Onyx answered quickly. "But I know why you wanted to free these captured soldiers, and I wanted to explain why I'd like to help."

Aleena had recovered herself but she was no longer in the mood to linger. "Then we understand each other."

Onyx lowered her head, unable to look at Aleena. "Perfectly." When she looked up again, Aleena stopped by the door and looked back at her as though she had more to say but the ex-commando lowered her head too and moved to leave. Onyx heard herself asking, "Do you think there is redemption for someone like me?"

Aleena stopped again and looked back. "Did the person you cared about forgive you before she died?"

Onyx didn't answer and lowered her gaze again.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

In the pre-battle meeting, Aleena kept her distance from Onyx and stood next to Commander Shepard while listening to EDI going over the plan of attack. The plan was simple: Shepard would take Garrus and Samara to board Purgatory first while G.G. and two Fins following them under cloaking. While Shepard's team was going through the transactions to buy Jack, G.G. and the commandos would make their way to a terminal to hack into the GUARDIAN defense system to disable the turrets. And then Aleena's ships and the Blue Sabre could come in and dock with the prison ship and join the Normandy crew to hold off the guards while identifying and liberating the ex-soldiers from Elysium.

On the floating fortress, Garrus muttered as they approached the prison guards waiting for them at the airlock. "I'd feel a lot better if we had more than three people."

Samara replied in a hushed tone. "We do have more than three people. The commandos behind us are under cloak."

Garrus gave Samara a quick glance. "I know that. You know what I mean."

Shepard hushed them as the prison guard greeted. "Welcome to the Purgatory, Shepard. Your package is being prepared, and you can claim it shortly."

As they walked through the hallways, Shepard's team witnessed a beating of a prisoner and prison cells being rearranged according to Warden Kuril's request. As they reached a hall that overlooked a courtyard, they saw a tall turian guard in his blue white armor holding a short human upside down by his ankles. The human flailed his arms trying to grab the guard's legs, but he couldn't reach his target. The turian guard started shaking the human as though he was a sack of grain. "Where is the damn disc?" The turian asked in irritation.

The human bent his head trying to get the turian's attention, "Stop shaking me. Humans don't like to be shaken like that."

"That's the idea. I'm not here to make you comfortable." He continued to shake the man. "Did you hide it in your clothes?"

"No. I swallowed it." The prisoner giggled with glee and received more violent shakes as return. He protested again, "Stop shaking me like I'm a piggy bank!"

"What's a piggy bank?" The guard stopped for a second.

"Piggy bank is an old fashioned toy with a coin slit. People on Earth used to deposit change into it to save up the big bucks." The prisoner explained.

"How do you take out the 'big bucks' after you've saved up?" The turian asked.

"You use a hammer to smash the porcelain pig."

The turian thought for a moment and dropped the prison on the floor. "Well, I don't have a hammer, but I have a shotgun." He undocked his weapon from his back armor.

The prisoner stood up and put up his hands. "Okay, okay. You win." He stuck a finger in his mouth and fished out a small disc and handed it to the guard.

The turian took the disc and put it in a compartment in his armor, and then he clocked the prisoner with the butt end of his shotgun. "Goodnight, Piggy Bank!"

Shepard whispered to her teammates, "The cryo chamber is right below that courtyard."

As the laser turrets went offline and the anti-missile buoys were disabled, Aleena's ships and the Blue Sabre came out of hiding and docked with Purgatory. Aleena's troops and the asari commandos gathered at the docking bay staging area.

Onyx pointed at Klang with her chin and asked Aleena. "So you keep him as a bodyguard and a sex slave?"

Aleena quickly glanced at the large krogan she had rescued from a fighting ring and stared back at Onyx. "Because I'm a rebel you think we don't feel anything except the rush of the kill, then we reap the profits and commence sex orgies. Oh, and our offspring are three-horned mixed mutts."

Onyx protested immediately. "No! Of course not!" She paused for a moment, "Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Commence sex orgies?"

"Why are you so interested?

"I'm not."

"Then why ask if you don't want the answer?"

"Never mind. Forget it."

A large explosion shook the ship and the PA overhead sounded a warning. "Caution! Jack has escaped! All guards, find and contain Jack!"

In a large hall to the central control room, Aleena and the commandos spread out behind the cover as a large group of guards created a barricade on the other side of the hall. The stationary turrets pinned the attacking force down and shield pylons protected the guards who were defending the position. Onyx directed the Fins to snipe down the pylons while Aleena took the lead to charge the turrets with her men. Klang charged ahead and took a few initial hits from the turrets on his armor before he rammed into it. Aleena and her men covered him with assault rifles and took down the guards who were covering the turrets. As Aleena's men advanced, she looked back and saw Onyx and two other commandos pinned down by several guards with frag grenades. Aleena motioned her people to move forward while moving to Onyx's position herself.

Aleena jumped out of cover and aimed her biotic pull at a prison guard who was ready to toss a grenade. She wrapped him in a biotic field and quickly flung her arm. The prison guard flew over their heads and landed a few feet behind them, his grenade sounded the last moments of buzzing before detonating and then it went off, ripping him into pieces. Aleena pushed Onyx on the ground and covered her body with her own. A piece of shrapnel ripped through her armor and landed on a meaty spot on her leg just below the knee.

When the thin grenade smoke cleared, Aleena rolled off Onyx and covered her leg armor where blood was leaking out. Onyx sat up after Aleena moved, "You're hurt!" She scrambled to the injured asari. Aleena was trying to cover the bleeding with her gloved hand and it was useless. Onyx took off her helmet then her gloves. She took away Aleena's hand covering the wound and peeled back the torn armor and the fabric underneath. The fabric dragged on the shrapnel, Aleena took in a sharp breath and gritted her teeth. Onyx stopped and looked up at the pirate. "You know I have to take it out in order to stop the bleeding." Aleena evened her breathing and nodded.

Onyx took Aleena's hand and put it on her own shoulder. "Hold on to me. This is gonna hurt." Aleena gave Onyx a smile and held on to the commando's shoulder. Onyx first took out a pack of medi-gel and ripped open the bag quickly, and she squeezed some onto the wound. "This might help with the pain." Without waiting for an answer, Onyx pulled back the fabric and the muscles around the shrapnel and carefully found the metal piece and pulled it out. Aleena's hand tightened on Onyx's shoulder and she couldn't suppress a loud grunt. Onyx quickly slathered more medi-gel on the wound and slowed the blood that was pouring out when the shrapnel was taken out. It looked like it had punctured an artery. "We may have to get you back on the ship."

Aleena shook her head. "I'll be fine."

"It looks like a large artery was damaged. I'd feel a lot better if a doctor looked at you." Onyx examined the wound like a veteran.

"You have concern for me?"

Onyx rolled her eyes. "Suit yourself." She packed up the medi-pack and without asking, she bent down and took hold of Aleena's arm and dragged her to her feet.

Aleena limped away to catch up to her men but not before she shouted. "The answer is no."

"No to what?" Onyx asked.

Aleena made sure that all the commandos standing around Onxy could hear her. "Sex orgies."

Another violent explosion shook the ship's hull, this time Shepard could see clearly who was causing it. Jack had gotten hold of a large rocket launcher from one of the dead guards and after she put a rocket through a hull where she came in through, she was now aiming it at Warden Kuril. Shepard's team had cornered Kuril on a tall platform and they'd taken out his guards and the shield pylons. In desperation, Kuril ordered his men to grab loose prisoners as human shields and all he had left now was the short guy who stole the disc and had been shaken down by the guard earlier.

"Don't shoot!" The human begged as Kuril lifted him off his feet and held him to shield the turian's head.

Shepard made sure that Garrus had his sniper rifle lined up on Kuril for the kill shot and she signaled Samara to stop Jack. Shepard walked out of her cover with both hands up in the air. "Warden Kuril, lay down your weapon and drop the hostage. Your only chance of walking out of here is to work with me. This doesn't have to end violently."

Kuril answered. "Get Jack to drop her weapon then we can talk."

Shepard walked closers to Jack, "Jack, I'm Commander Shepard. I'm here to get you out. Would you please put down the rocket launcher?"

Jack didn't change her aim. "What the fuck do you want with me?"

"I need your help, Jack." Shepard moved into the viewfinder of Jack's weapon. _Shit!_ Jack cursed, _another redhead needs my help?_ She moved her head away from the rocket launcher to look at Shepard.

Kuril dropped his human shield and aimed his own sniper rifle at Shepard. A loud sniper rifle sounded and Kuril took a moment to drop on the floor. Garrus lifted his head from his gun sight. "Gotcha!"

Jack was furious and shouted at Garrus, "Hey! He was my kill! I was going to fucking blow this head off!" As Jack lifted up the rocket launcher in anger, Samara ripped it from her with a speed that surprised Jack and everyone else. Jack flared her biotics brightly and leapt into the air. Samara matched her biotic intensity and wrapped Jack in a biotic bubble. Jack struggled to release her biotic energy, but the pressure was too great. She finally dropped on the ground, panting with exhaustion. Samara stood next to her, barely breathing hard.

"Power without control only leads to chaos and chaos is a waste of energy."

Clearly feeling outmaneuvered and outclassed, Jack looked up and panted. "What the fuck?"

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Onyx caught up with Aleena again as her troops evacuated the ex-soldiers to their ships, "Hey, wait up!"

Aleena stopped and waved Klang ahead, and the krogan nodded to his team and walked toward the docking bay. Aleena turned and waited for the commando. Onyx jogged, her face bounced in Aleena's vision.

"Your mercs… your team did a great job today! They fought like a well trained unit." Onyx gave Aleena a pat on the shoulder. A compliment like that didn't come from Onyx often, and Aleena knew it very well. Onyx moved her eyes to Aleena's leg. "How's your leg?" She bent down and examined Aleena's wound- it had started bleeding again and the purple blood had dripped all the way down, covering half of her boot and leaving blood marks where she landed her foot. "You're bleeding again!" Onyx gasped.

Aleena felt her adrenaline dissipating and as she looked down at her leg, she felt her head spinning, "Crap!"

The experienced commando knew what to expect. She bent down and grabbed the pirate's arm and flung her body over her shoulder before the injured woman let out a whimper and passed out.

Onyx sat next to Aleena's bed in the infirmary of the Tuchanka Project's bunker. "The asari government has given you and your men full pardon. I've called in some favors and gotten you reinstated under your old commando branch." She opened her hand to reveal a patch made with an insignia that Aleena had on her full combat armor. "Next time you step on your ship, you'll be flying under the asari military banner, as a special tasks group. You're tasked to run the PRN, and they even let you keep the name. You'll keep up with your recruitment and training. The Matriarchs were most impressed by your ability at both."

Aleena stared at the insignia she had worn proudly as an ardent commando, the one she had painted on her armor over the batarian's stamp on her flesh beneath it. She looked at Onyx who had helped her recover a small piece of herself by giving her back a part of her past, and she realized the commando leader might have been able to save her company but her true salvation now laid in forgiveness and the need for charging ahead. Klang had come to see her earlier and told her that most of the ex-soldiers they liberated from Purgatory had volunteered to join Aleena's forces after they reconnected with their families. What use was there to hold old grudges?

Aleena's fingers brushed over the insignia and they continued on to brush Onyx's hand that was holding the patch. "So no chance I could stay a rebel, huh?"

"Don't you want to be one of the good guys? You're doing good deeds." Onyx closed her hand and moved it away from Aleena's hand.

"It usually comes with a price." Aleena looked up at the commando leader.

"You don't trust us."

"I don't trust the government."

"Goddess, why is it so hard to talk you?" Onyx stood up in frustration. "Not everyone in the government is like the greedy Matriarch." The commando sighed and shook her head. "So you don't want to give up being a pirate."

"I would, for the right price." Aleena couldn't hide her smirk when she heard the disappointment in Onyx's voice.

"And there I thought you weren't greedy like the rest of them."

"No, not greedy for credits."

"For what then?"

Aleena took Onyx's hand that was on her hip. "For a chance with you."

Onyx moved her hand once again from Aleena but she put the patch in the reinstated commando's hand.

Aleena sighed. "You won't find peace if you don't forgive yourself. It's been a long time since Halica. You seem to carry a wound that's deeper than mine."

Onyx conceded to the point and sat back down, "It will take a bit longer." She let out a bitter smile, "I thought you'd hate me when I told you what I did. You should hate me."

Aleena thought Onyx looked tired. The nurse at the infirmary told her that the commando leader was here all night. "I spent many years under the batarian's captivity and I've mourned for the years lost. But if you don't let yourself out of the past you can't move on to the future. Don't trap yourself in that prison for too long."

Aleena tried again reaching for Onyx's hand and felt the commando's hand lingered at the touch. Aleena looked up at Onyx's face, "When you told your commando that you trusted me, you touched me. I know someone like you doesn't give their trust easily. If you can touch me why can't you touch yourself?"

Onyx stood up and moved away. She couldn't look into Aleena's eyes and search for answers why a surviving vet of Halica would forgive her and her betrayal to her sisters in arms. When Lt. Kurin approached her with the Tuchanka Project, Onyx liked the odds of this coming war. She might not survive and that might be a good ending for the guilt that weighed on her heavily. But meeting Aleena who handed her forgiveness had moved the foundation Onyx built to ground herself in. The survivor found her center and her purpose, why couldn't the betrayer?

Aleena flipped the sheets over and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Onyx protested, "What are you doing? The doctor hasn't released you!"

Aleena put her weight on her injured leg and tested her balance. "Rebel or not, I can't leave my men for too long." Her hand let go of the bed and she limped a step. Onyx was by her side and took her hand. Aleena was about to say, "I can manage it myself", but she felt Onyx's fingers wrapped around her own and it sent her heart fluttering. She paused for a beat and let Onyx support her arm while walking her to the door that the commando held for her.

"When you find the door out of your own prison, let me hold it for you to return the favor." She smiled as she felt Onyx's hand grip hers tighter.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shepard walked into the mess hall and saw Jack having a fit with the coffee maker. "Coffee, black." Jack shouted. Gardner stood by the fridge watching Jack with his arms crossed in front of him.

"Coffee, black!" Jack's voice raised an octave. Nothing happened to the coffee maker. "Give me fucking coffee, you stupid machine! Coffee, coffee, coffee!" Jack started to shake the coffee maker that was built into the cooking unit.

Shepard looked at Gardner again, and he shook his head. She put a hand on Jack's arm that made the biotic jump. Jack turned abruptly. Shepard put both of her hands up, "Whoa, what's the problem, Jack?"

"I want some coffee and the stupid coffee maker is fucking with me!" She shouted in frustration.

Shepard now stared at Gardner who finally answered. "She had two full pots of coffee already and she smashed some plates that I just took out from the cleaner. EDI has decided to cut her off."

"What?" Jack's face turned red. "The computer voice lady cut me off? Where can I find her? I'm going to smash her fucking head into the garbage compactor!"

EDI's voice came on. "Since I don't have a physical presence your threat is rather empty. Commander, I've scanned Jack's vitals after she destroyed the plates and found the symptoms of accelerated heartbeat with occasional arrhythmia, involuntary movements of certain muscle groups on her extremities, and combined that with her irritable mood, I have decided she was on the verge of caffeine overdose."

Shepard nodded. "Thank you, EDI. Please turn the coffee maker back on." A moment later, the liquid started dripping into the pot. Shepard turned to Jack, "What's bothering you, Jack? Why did you smash the Mess Sergeant's plates?"

Jack mellowed a little when she saw that she could get more coffee. "I've been reading the data you made the Cerberus cheerleader unlock. They fucked with me, Shepard. I'm not sleeping until I read every fucking little detail on what Cerberus has done to me and to those other kids." Her hand that held the coffee cup was shaking.

Shepard took the cup from her and poured half cup of coffee. "Half cup this round, then you go to sleep."

Jack accepted the coffee cup begrudgingly. "Fine." She started to walk back to the elevator when Samara came into the mess hall. "Hey, FCL!" And she disappeared behind the elevator.

Shepard took a cup of coffee for herself and looked at Samara. "What's an FCL?"

Samara corrected her, "_Who_ is FCL."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Jack seemed to see fit to give me an alternate name, Fortune Cookie Lady." Samara explained. "She said I always talk like a fortune cookie, whatever that means."

Shepard's eyes widened as she looked at the Justicar. "You let her call you that?"

"I tolerate it since the young one didn't have a proper course of education and it was not a fault of her own." Samara's voice was matter-of-fact. Shepard realized the significance of the minutiae EDI had provided her earlier: the Justicar code would command Samara to arrest or kill a criminal such as Jack who had accumulated several warrants from different systems.

"I know it must be hard on you, Samara." Shepard sighed. "I too am used to working with warriors, not criminals. But times like these demand us to put our personal beliefs aside and make sacrifices for survival..."

"And survival itself often requires the need for the savage." Samara finished Shepard's sentence for her. The Justicar sensed a change within her, a change that started when she visited her two young daughters in the monastery and when she met Shepard who helped save her eldest daughter's life. The Justicar Code harkened back to a time more feudal where laws didn't represent justice for everyone. It was established for the survival of the people, not just the perpetuation of the rulers. The longer she stayed on Shepard's mission the clearer she saw the essence of the Justicar Code that was revealed to her: there was no greater need than that of people's survival, no greater honor than sacrificing one's own beliefs and morals to ensure people's survival. In her many hours of meditation in the Starboard Observation Deck, Samara had realized that the oath of the Justicar Order had manifested its true meaning in a new light to her, and Samara felt at peace with her mission.

Seeing the concern in Shepard's eyes, the Justicar explained. "Her tormentors gave her drugs to experience euphoria when she took lives. Jack's symptoms after kills aren't too far apart from an Ardat-Yakshi's. If I could lessen the effect each time for her and guide her from her misunderstanding of violence, perhaps there's hope for her where there isn't one yet for Morinth."

Shepard nodded. "I think about the love I have for Liara, for my mother and the honor that often restores me when I'm lost, the honor of being in the company of my brothers and sisters-in-arms on the SR-1 and of the extraordinary people who chose to be on this suicide mission with me. These are the things that make me who I am. Jack, she never had a chance to experience these things. I got a second chance at life, why shouldn't she?"

Samara bowed her head slightly to one side in an agreement, "We walked two different paths, Commander, yet we arrived at the same destination again."

Shepard suppressed a chuckle. _Jack was right about one thing: Samara does talk like she's reading from fortune cookies. _"An old CO of mine taught me when I took my first command, a good leader is about picking the right people to go into battle with. You shouldn't be in the company of those you wouldn't want to die with, he said. The question is, is Jack willing to fight and to die alongside us."

"Something tells me that she'll be well worth the effort from all of us."

After a full night of sleep, Jack found Samara in the Starboard Observation Deck, meditating. "I heard what you said about me to Shepard before the elevator door closed. I'm not always a savage, you know. The bitches at Teltin turned me this way. I just know it!"

Jack had expressed her admiration for Samara's biotic powers and skills and the Justicar had offered to give her lessons. Samara stood up from her meditating position and quietly listened to the young human's questions.

"How about this Shepard, do you trust her? She's not a cult leader or something like that, is she? Does she have a dungeon hidden somewhere on this ship?"

Samara's eyes widened more and more with each question. "Shepard is a soldier and a warrior. She's prepared to sacrifice herself to save the galaxy as am I."

"You're all a bunch Lukes!" Jack said quickly. "I'm with a bunch of assholes."

"We're a group of warriors with similar minds. We may be small but we're inspired. With time and hope, the rest of the galaxy will join our efforts."

Jack snorted. "Dream on, FCL! From what I've seen, people in this galaxy only look out for themselves. Shepard is dreaming if she thinks you all can just tell them to not give a shit about themselves."

Samara considered what the youth had said, and found there was surprising wisdom in that, however simple it seemed.

Jack shook her head, "Yup, a bunch of assholes." Jack felt a sudden pain in her chest when she thought about Luke. The pain she felt for the loss of the old man was different from the anger she often felt when something terrible was done to her. The pain and anger warred for supremacy on her face.

Samara saw Jack's emotions and she couldn't help but soften her features and wait patiently for the young human to speak again. When she did, it was something quite unexpected.

"So you think Shepard is worthy to die alongside with?"

Samara instructed Jack to sit on the floor cross-legged. "Close your eyes and listen to the sound of my voice."

Jack closed her eyes.

"In the riverbank of our longest running water, when you put ears to the ground you can hear the distant rapids; in our oldest temple, when you put your ears on the long memorial wall you can hear the whispers of our ancestors..."

Jack opened her eyes, "What does this have to do with our training?"

Samara opened her eyes and explained. "Using biotics comes naturally to you but controlling it takes years of practice. I'm going through the first steps of freeing a biotic's mind from clutter and help it build a structure. But first…"

Jack cut her off impatiently. "I've got to listen to what's not there and feel what isn't. Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

Samara ignored the obvious rebellious tone in Jack's voice and closed her eyes. "Now put your ears to the ground. Can you hear the water rushing from the waterfall and around the bend?"

"No." Jack had never been on a camping trip with her parents. Cerberus took her when she was four, but the idea of exploring nature and listening to the history of a river through the observing riverbank made her realize what her life had been missing. Those moments that other people could call upon when they needed a memory to relate to someone or to draw strength from, like the story Blake had told her about how his mother had shown him how to put together a toy ship. For the life of her, Jack couldn't remember anything before Teltin. She had tried to remember her mother, but the drugs she was given in Teltin hid her earliest memories, and she'd like to think those memories were happy ones. But how could she be certain if she couldn't even remember them?

Samara opened her eyes and saw Jack staring back at her. The Justicar softened her voice. "Let's try the second one. Close your eyes and picture a grand temple with a long curved memory wall, put your ears on it and try to listen to the thousands of voices whispering their best wishes to their loved ones who had gone with the goddess."

Jack stood up. "Look FCL, it often takes a shot of chemicals to make me not hear the fucking voices in my head. When I can't get the drugs, I have to live with the voices of kids screaming at me and voices of those fuckers who raped me and laughed at me, and worse yet I hear my own fucking voice when I rip some slaver's eyes out or punch a hole in his stomach with my biotic fist. So no, I don't want to hear those voices. Okay?"

Samara opened her eyes again and she saw Jack's flushed cheeks as she ranted and her arms waved to make her point. The frustration that started to rise in her turned to sadness, and Samara rose from the floor in a fluid motion and turned her back to Jack. She faced the large window, and then she bent her head.

Jack was about to let her temper erupt as she'd often done when she tried to explain how she felt and nobody could understand her. It was easier to scare people away, because then they wouldn't care how she felt and Jack could easily hide behind the disasters she caused. But every time she pushed someone away the urge to be heard became stronger and stronger until it pained her. Smashing things always helped, putting her body and mind to exhaustion, she wouldn't have to think. But she knew the desire to be heard was still there. Blake and Gabrielle heard her and accepted her, and Luke heard her, that Luke…

Jack looked at the back of the Justicar. In her training at Teltin, she was taught that your back was the most vulnerable place on your body- never turn your back on your enemy. Jack suddenly realized the old Fortune Cookie Lady was showing her vulnerability and that had stopped Jack from walking out of the room. Observing the Justicar bend her head, Jack didn't know what to do. It took no small effort on Jack's part to keep quiet and wait her teacher out.

Finally Samara turned and faced the human. "I apologize, Jack." And her eyes cast down.

"For what?"

"For my failure as a teacher. I should have taken your experience into my method of teaching instead of using the traditional way of teaching an asari child." Samara paused, but her darkened face told Jack she had more to impart. "I've failed once before."

"As a teacher?"

"As a teacher and a mother." Samara's stare glazed, "I failed to teach Morinth the same lesson because I failed to realize she had an unquiet mind. I should have been more observant. I was her mother after all."

"You failed your own kid?" Jack regretted it the moment her words came out. Watching Samara tighten her fists and her painful stare, Jack wanted to escape the room once again. She didn't want to anger the powerful FCL, and more fittingly she knew she had smashed something inside Samara— she could tell the Justicar looked tired and that made her feel tired too. The first thought was to leave and get back to the safety of her little space under Engineering Deck, but the thought of her sharing the burden with someone was foreign to Jack and she felt certain excitement for this new experience.

Samara once again turned and faced the window. "If you're tired please rest by all means. We can continue the lesson another time if you still wish to learn from me."

The constriction in Samara's voice pushed Jack to move towards her. The human inserted herself between the Justicar and the window, and she sat down on the floor leaning against the hull.

"Tell me about Morinth. Is she a badass like me?"

A small chuckle escaped the Justicar that surprised even herself. Samara sat back down on the floor, legs crossed and back straight. "I shall tell you a story of a sea hunter."


	30. Chapter 30 Love Actually

**Second Life**

**Chapter Thirty – Love Actually**

Liara woke up at the crack of dawn on the Big Whale, not that she could look out the window and see the sun coming up. In the midst of heavy storm orbiting Hagalaz, she had adjusted her inner circadian clock to the countless chronos installed on the ship. On the few occasions when she raised the storm shutters and looked out the window, she'd miss being on a planet and seeing the contrast of light and darkness. Alone at night in her large bedroom, the one that the yahg used to occupy, she often fell into memories of her childhood when she would wake up in the middle of the night and explore the T'Soni mansion barefoot. She remembered the excitement of finding old things in the storage basement with the small torch her mother had given her after she was discovered digging for ruins in the park. "A torch is an essential tool when you dig in ancient ruins that have no light source." Her mother told her when she installed the torch on Liara's omni-tool. Liara kept it and had used it on several occasions in remote digs when all other light sources went out. Presently she turned on the torch to look at the chrono on her desk, it was still early but she had no time to dally today, for today she would host a bonding ceremony.

When Glyph notified her that both the Blue Sabre and the Normandy were approaching the Shadow Broker's ship, Liara walked up to the observation deck to watch the two warships docking with the Big Whale. She mused as a smile spread on her face: if the Big Whale were still under the yahg's control, the convergence of two worships, one commanded by a Spectre and another by an asari Matriarch would have caused a stir to say the least. As the new Shadow Broker looked out from her storm window, she could only let out a contented sigh.

Liara was still getting used to life as one of the main players of a team that now ran the Shadow Broker network. It wasn't so much about making shady deals that bothered her- she knew those were unavoidable from time to time. Threatening someone with her words was in her genes as Liara had discovered since her days on Illium. Now on this dreadnought sized ship that served as the information nerve center of the galaxy, it wasn't just about 'let's bake some ziti while buying secret weapon schematics from turians who had thought up yet another deadly canon based on the data and parts salvaged from Sovereign', these were deals meant to get crucial information and upgrades that might give Shepard and her ship a better chance to survive the trip through the Omega 4 relay and back. And for that, Liara was willing to bake pasta all day and make deals all nights.

Shepard let the crew off the ship and settle in their temporary quarters on the Big Whale. It seemed that Liara had found something for everyone to do for the wedding. Wait, asari called it bonding ceremony. She was the last one who still remained on the Normandy because she finally heard back from Tali who was in transit to some planet in geth controlled territory, and the quarian was coy about her mission and its location.

"Why can't you tell me where you're going, Tali?" Ever since Freedom's Progress, Shepard had a feeling that her young quarian friend was searching for something, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what that something was. She sensed a conflict in Tali who in Shepard's mind had always been uncomplicated and resourceful. The quarian still seemed to be resourceful but there was hesitation in her that worried Shepard. She recognized the danger of such hesitation since she herself experienced them, often in unanswered questions or unfinished dreams.

"The same reason you can't tell me where you are right now, Shepard." The quarian had indeed grown up. All she told Shepard was that she was on an old freighter heading to geth territory on an important mission. The presence of a squad of elite quarian Marines that were accompanying Tali added to the gravity of this mission.

Shepard sighed to the QEC image of Tali, "Where is my Tali who used to ask for a birthday present months before her birthday? And where's the Tali who snuck into Garrus' quarters and stole his best turian wine, and told me stories of her mother? I miss that Tali."

Tali also let out a sigh and spoke in a voice almost reaching contralto. "I left it on the SR-1. We all left something on the SR-1, just ask Liara and Garrus."

Shepard remained silent. She knew what Tali really wanted to say, "Ask yourself what you've lost, Shepard," and she was right. _We can't get back our past._ Shepard finally looked up at her friend again, her gaze searching for the little sister she thought she had and the young kid who dreamed of building a grenade launcher big enough to send Wrex's immense form into a group of geth that were following Sovereign. Somehow the lost innocence in her young friend made Shepard feel guilty and she was lost for words. "Keep your head together, Tali." She finally offered. "Don't let the Admiralty Board boss you around and say hi to your father for me. And you promise me on your Rannoch Memory Core that you'll call me if you need help."

Tali nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, Shepard."

"Not good enough, Tali. You have to promise me."

Tali hesitated for a moment while she lowered her helmeted face, the light in her speech port blinked as she let out a long breath. Her voice turned softer and more piping. "Okay, I promise."

The moment Shepard stepped onto the main deck of the Big Whale, she was greeted with buzzing of activities in promise of the day's special event. She had never imagined the reclusive ship could get this crowded or this loud as music blasting through the PA mixed with loud chatter and shouted directions for the overhead spotlights to take correct aim. Bodies in Cerberus service uniforms and asari commando uniforms whizzed around her in the giant hall, setting up chairs and decorations. Even Joker stood on a short platform directing the movement of a large string instrument to a corner where an overhead spotlight was shining. When the pilot saw Shepard's red hair, he waved at her to get her attention, and then he pointed a finger in a direction. Shepard nodded and shouted thank you, but her voice was lost in a sea of noise. Slithering through moving bodies and stacked chairs, the Commander came to the center of the large hall, and there stood an asari in a traditional dress that hugged every curve of her body and moved with her like a second skin. The asari turned around at the sound of Joker calling her name to alert her of Shepard's arrival, eyes glistening and a radiant smile on her face.

Shepard stopped in her tracks watching the asari approach her. The view was breathtaking. Shepard's eyes ran along the graceful hips and the firm breasts, then the lush lips and the cute nose with a slight upturn. When the asari's large blue eyes blinked, Shepard remembered to breathe and smile. Looking at the quiet and smiling face of the asari, Shepard suddenly realized that her wide-eyed, bumbling archeologist was no longer here. The soldier's gaze lingered on the asari's face for a minute longer. _When did she turn so striking?_

"Fancy meeting you here." The soldier's voice was husky.

The asari took the human's hands and she put her lips firmly on the human's, then she backed up. "Today belongs to the bondmates to be. Tonight and tomorrow shall belong to us." When the human looked into the asari's eyes again she saw something possessive in her expression.

Thane stood next to Feron, observing his fellow drell's blue gills turn a deeper color and he smiled faintly. He remembered his own joining ceremony that took two days on Kahje, one day above water based on the drell's custom and one day below in a dome following the hanar's tradition. The drell's ceremony was quite different from the asari's, and Thane could sympathize with Feron who had planned this ceremony on Kahje before the previous Shadow Broker captured him. "Feeling like a lizard out of the desert?"

Feron hadn't realized he'd been flexing his gills while watching the door to the big hall. He didn't expect the short wait for his bride would have such an effect on him. He let out a dry cough and looked at Thane. "On the contrary. I've never had so many friends."

"Nervous then?"

"Rather intensely. Why do they make you wait?" Ceremony between drell couples required that both the bride and groom arrive together.

Thane rested a hand on Feron's shoulder lightly. "Put your mind at ease. You've already taught her how to talk to the sharks on Kahje, for a drell who adopted the hanar world as his home, there isn't a more intimate act to share with a mate. And she had trekked the galaxy and risked her life to save yours, there isn't stronger devotion for any species than she has for you."

Feron nodded and smiled at Thane. "You know it's our tradition to have a brother accompany the groom during the ceremony. I consider it an honor to have you by my side on this occasion."

Thane smiled back, "The honor is mine."

Aethyta in a long purple dress walked ahead of the bride and the bride's companion. When Liara asked her to officiate the bonding ceremony, Aethyta laughed. "You're sure, kid? Don't you need someone who's more eloquent than me?"

Liara had explained to Aethyta that Nightshade and Feron would have been bonded if it weren't for her and for saving Shepard's body. She wanted to repay her friends with this act, which they had accepted graciously. "Nightshade has requested your service because she said she couldn't think of anyone she could trust more to tie the bonds between her and the one she loves."

Aethyta's hand hovered over a large bowl of water as she looked at the bride and groom. "Water in the bowl, mirror of life. In the presence of the goddess and the witness of many, you may say your vows to each other."

Nightshade looked up at Feron who stood on the other side of the water bowl and spoke as tears pooled in her eyes. "Before I met you life was unkind to me, and then you came along. When I thought I had lost you…" She stopped and let her tears fall. Liara who stood behind her gave Nightshade's arm a light squeeze as an encouragement. The assassin looked up again, this time with a smile on her face. "By the will of goddess, I shall spend my life by your side in person and in spirit until the ocean separates us and sends our souls to the goddess." She finished with the asari's traditional bonding vow.

Feron closed both sets of his eyelids and steepled his hands in front of his chest. "On Kahje we spend two days in joining ceremony to teach us that love has two sides: the joyful and the suffering. We can only understand love when we have accepted both sides. My body shall lie under the ocean before yours, but my spirit will join with yours forever. I pledge both to you for as long as you wish to have me."

Feron's secondary vocal reverberated longer and it was suddenly cut off by a blast that sounded like a canon had gone off. Above the seated crowd, on the temporary platform built into the service catwalk, Jack held a large canon-like gun that had just blasted a rain of confetti into the air. But looking at the direction where the colorful pieces were falling, Jack cursed. "Fuck, that was a shitty aim!" As she let out a string of expletive words, the biotic reloaded her canon from a large bin behind her and repositioned the canon again. This time she took aim more carefully and pulled the giant trigger again. A loud boom shook the air in the room once again and the confetti pieces were now falling on the two newly bonded couple and the guests who witnessed the event.

Shepard turned around and whispered to Samara, "Did Liara agree to this?"

Samara who sat behind Shepard leaned forward and replied, "After I made Jack promise to clean up the debris."

Shepard shook her head, "Amazing." Samara didn't ask if it was amazing that Liara agreed to this or that Jack agreed to the clean up duty.

Spotlights that were focused on the bonded couple now moved to the large string instrument in the corner. G.G.'s long fingers ran across the strings that filled the hall with music via the instrument's large projection port. The plucking of bass strings drummed like heartbeats and the reverberation hummed like wind passing through a tunnel. Her fingers passed the middle strings and the sound of spring rain falling on leaves came through the music. As the young commando's fingers reached the higher notes, Fin 2 whispered to her friends on the catwalk above the seating area where they operated the spotlights.

"Goddess, I can't stand it anymore. If I have to look at her fingers one more time, I'm going to lose it!" Fin 2 turned her head away.

Fin 1 put her hands on Fin 2's head from behind and aimed it back towards the lute player.

Fin 2 grunted. "I've got to have her now!"

It was an eternity for Fin 2 to wait for the ceremony to complete, and when it was finally over she met up with G.G., and two commandos sensed the heat radiating off each other. Without a word spoken, they each knew what the other wanted. Scanning the crowded main deck, G.G. pursed her lips. "We can't get back on the ship. Liara's crew is installing upgrades on the decontamination chambers on both our ship and the Normandy."

Fin 2 took hold of G.G.'s hand, and the young commando squeezed her hand in response. Fin 2 felt her heart flickering like gauze wavering in giddy wind. She took a deep breath to steady herself. "It's past lunch time and long before dinner. Maybe the kitchen is empty. I think I saw a sofa there."

G.G. tugged on Fin 2's hand. "Let's go!"

Before they stepped over the threshold that led to the kitchen, the two commandos heard voices arguing in the kitchen.

"My special syrup. A hundred kilograms can produce one metric ton of pasta. Time efficient, cost saving. Best solution to the problem." Mordin waved his fingers at a test tube that he held out to Gardner.

The Normandy's Mess Sergeant leaned on a stack of crates that stored his best pasta supply. He didn't make a move to accept Mordin's "gift". "Who needs 2 thousand pounds of lasagna? Your synthesized pasta tastes like waxed plastic. I'd rather lick the hull of the Normandy than put that shit in my mouth. I'm baking ziti the old fashion way even if it takes me all afternoon. I'm not putting your test tube namby pamby shit into my people's stomachs. And that's that."

Mordin put the test tube back in his large lab coat pocket. "Not unexpected. Human stubbornness manifests often. Seen it in Shepard. Would like to observe the slow process. Analyze the finish product. Do I have permission?"

Gardner turned around and started unpacking the crates. "You can do whatever the hell you want as long as you stay out of my way. I've got to make enough food for a battalion of people."

"Hence my original solution to solve the problem. Time efficient."

"Waxed plastic."

"Synthesized food."

Outside the large kitchen, G.G. unconsciously touched the back of her neck. Fin 2 put a hand on the young commando's arm. "Are you alright?"

G.G. nodded and her face turned a shade deeper. "My implant is pulsing. I don't think I can fight it for much longer. My body wants release."

G.G.'s words stirred Fin 2 even more, she felt eddies in her stomach and she bit her lower lip. "If we don't find a place soon, I'm gonna need an implant to stop me from throwing you down right here and doing things to you."

G.G. dropped her hand from her neck and thought for a moment, "I think I saw a sofa in the vid library room. We can check there."

Fin 2 grabbed G.G.'s hand in a flash and rushed towards the vid library dragging the young commando behind her.

Inside the video library Joker's arms were flying like he was maneuvering the Normandy into a fierce battle. Dr. Chakwas sat on the large sofa across from the entrance and asked him. "What in god's heaven are you doing, Jeff? Shepard said we should treat this stop as shore leave. Stop working so hard. I for one have helped myself to the large wine cellar on this ship. Can you believe they have Thessian Red, 47? A shelf full of them!"

Joker didn't slow his arms, and his movement resembled a conductor drawing shapes through music. A montage of vid screens flew dizzily by in front of him. "I'm not working. Liara gave me access to a wideband network. I'm downloading zettabytes of what EDI calls 'explicit material' to the Normandy's memory. I'm flooding it so fast, if EDI had a body, her eyes would spin like high speed turbines that would leave burn marks in her eye sockets."

Dr. Chakwas let out a sigh of contentment, and she poured more wine into her cup. "I wonder if I should take a few bottles with me to the Normandy", and sunk into the sofa watching the pilot half-heartedly.

Fin 2 turned around from the door and grunted, "Ugh! It's a fucking dreadnought and we can't find a single spot to be alone!"

G.G. brought up the diagram of the Big Whale on her omni-tool and quickly flipped through the decks and she pointed at an area. "Here! It's the observation deck and everyone should be at the party or drinking somewhere. Nobody should be storm watching."

Fin 2 nodded to two Normandy crewmembers in the hallway as she quickened her steps. "Does it have a lock on the door?" She winked at G.G.

"I'll make a lock if there isn't one. But seeing this ship's security level, I bet it has a high level security door that I can lock for as long as we need." G.G.'s proud voice almost made those intervening heartbeats in Fin 2 too painful to bear.

"I hope you're prepared for all the things I want to do to you." Fin 2 pounded her powerful legs in big strides.

G.G. broke into a light jog to catch up, "Whatever it is that you want to do to me, you'd better do it soon."

Miranda sat in a large chair in the observation deck, facing the storm through the window, but she wasn't storm watching. A small disc sat on the table next to her chair and Oriana's image flickered in the center. Miranda talked without looking at her sister's image. "Our father is a mad man, but there is a method to his madness. Once you've learned his logic it's not hard to see what he's going to do next."

Oriana's attention was focused on her sister. "And what is that?"

Miranda turned to look at her sister. "He'll keep looking for you. You are the only thing he's ever considered a success in his career. He won't let his prize go that easily." She paused and looked away again, "I was a mistake in his plan."

Oriana stood up abruptly and huffed. "Then he's not our father, Miranda! I have a father and he loves me, and that's thanks to you. If I ever see Henry Lawson, I'd slap him for thinking of you as a mistake."

Miranda smiled at the image of her sister slapping her father's face. "As satisfying as that may be, I'm making damn sure that you never have to face him."

Looking at Liara's crew perform maintenance checks in the corridors outside the observation deck, Fin 2 led G.G. to a deck below. With the observation deck also occupied, the two commandos had run out of ideas where they could go to find a private space and the fierce fire within them had left a trail of ashes that burned their bodies and minds. With the bonding ceremony long finished, Fin 2 ventured. "What about the main deck? Since there are other activities taking place elsewhere, maybe nobody is there?"

G.G. thought for a bit. "But it's too huge and open. People might walk in on us."

Fin 2's eyes glimmered, "We can get on the catwalk. We operated the spotlights up there earlier and it has plenty of room for just the two of us."

Hand-in-hand, two commandos moved towards the ram leading to the main deck, the urgency had pushed them into a jog.

Inside the large hall that had just witnessed a bonding ceremony, a young human biotic was pushing a long broom on the floor to clean up the confetti she had shot out earlier in the day. Accompanying her was a Justicar and the two commandos caught what the Justicar was just saying to the young biotic.

"You did very well today, Jack." Samara stood on the side of the floor that had already been cleaned and watched the young human biotic perform her clean up duty.

Jack pushed the broom on the floor and ran behind it, as she passed where Samara was standing she asked. "Why are you nice to me?"

Samara moved her head following Jack's movement. "I would like to help you and I think I _can _help you if you allow me."

Jack whizzed by again. "Help me with what?"

Samara didn't answer her directly and her temporary silence stopped Jack's sweeping motion as she stood still and watched the Justicar closely. As though coming out a brief reverie, Samara looked up at Jack, "During our first lesson you mentioned that you couldn't remember anything before Teltin. But you were four years old when you were taken and if I understand it correctly, you should have some memories at that age."

Jack looked down at the broom in her hands. "Yeah, life sucks sometimes and shitty luck always follows me around."

Samara offered carefully. "I would like to help you recover what you've lost and perhaps help you remember the time before Teltin."

"How?" Jack looked up at the asari, and her voice betrayed her excitement. But then she looked down again trying to conceal the interest she just showed but it was too late. Samara walked closer to the young human.

"The anger and the rage the Teltin training instilled in you are strong. When you look inward and listen to yourself, you only hear that rage and anger, you do not hear your soul. I would like to help you learn how to suppress your inner tempest and bring out the clear voice of your own."

Jack didn't hide behind her defenses this time or call Samara the Fortune Cookie Lady though the thought had flashed through her mind as she was trying to understand the Justicar's words. The quiet expression on Samara's face looked uncertain as though she was lost and couldn't find a path to a destination she wanted desperately to reach. The contradiction between the confident words and the uncertainty on the Justicar's face confused Jack at first. And when Jack stared into Samara's pale blue eyes, she understood why Samara so eagerly wanted to help her. _I'm a penance she uses since she can't help her daughters, _Jack thought. But the thought of being used in this fashion somehow didn't conjure the temper that usually gathered in her; rather she felt the urge to open up to this asari whom she had slowly considered her teacher.

"Do you want something from me as return if I let you help me?"

Samara blinked and took a moment to consider Jack's question. "The Justicar's virtue requires little need for material possession. Aside from the fact that we'll join Shepard on the dangerous mission and might require each other's assistance in battles, I suppose I enjoy your company."

The thought of recovering the memories of her early childhood, of her parents, of her mother, excited Jack. But Jack had a rule when she dealt with people: "Don't owe nobody anything you can't pay back, or it'll come back and bite your ass." But what could she do for the all-powerful FCL? Something in Samara's voice when she told the young human about Morinth stirred something in Jack. She was just like Morinth, striking destruction in her path and people were always chased her. If the FCL could help her, why couldn't she help her daughter?

Jack resumed her sweeping of the floor, not looking at Samara. She said loudly, "If I let you do that, I'm gonna need a favor from you."

Samara's eyes lifted up a bit and followed Jack's movement once again. "What favor would you ask of me?"

Jack stopped once again in front of the asari and conceded to the fact that this old lady has broken through her defenses and she could hold up no more walls to resist the connection. "Would you talk to your daughters in the monastery about Morinth? You've only talked shit about Morinth to them. They deserve to know what happened to their sister."

Outside the main deck, Fin 2 and G.G. waited impatiently while listening to muffled conversation behind the thick door. Fin 2 kicked the back of her boot to the hull behind her. "Ugh! How much longer are they going to clean and talk?"

G.G. had started to enjoy this side of Fin 2 and she leaned in to kiss her on the lips, and Fin 2 almost lost her balance. She put her hands on the hull behind her to steady her legs that were burning with the need to be touched. A pair of Normandy crew walked by and the commandos stood apart quickly. Fin 2 fired up her omni-tool. "I'm mobilizing the Fins."

Fin 1 answered the call. "What's up?"

Fin 2's voice sounded a little unsteady. "What do the living quarters look like? G.G. and I are having a hard time finding a quiet spot for ourselves. Any ideas?"

Fin 1 turned to her other Fin friends, "Alia needs a space with G.G., any ideas where might be good?"

Fin 3 shook her head. "There are people out about everywhere we have authorization to go on this ship and we can't go back to our own ship due to the upgrade work that's ongoing. Wait…" She looked at Fin 1, "I saw Gauze alone in the infirmary earlier. The Normandy's doctor wasn't there. If we can get Gauze away…"

Fin 1 didn't wait for her friend to finish. She walked over to the sink in the bathroom and filled three thermoses with hot water and handed each Fin a bottle. "Pour this on your feet and we'll call Gauze for burn treatment and that'll leave the infirmary empty."

Fin 4 looked at the thermos and hesitated. "Must we all do it?"

Fin 1 shook the thermos impatiently. "We'll keep Gauze here longer if all of us are injured and it will give us a chance to feed her some booze and hopefully she'll stay for a while. If it's just one of us we won't give Alia enough time. We want to help our friend, don't we? Besides, we owe G.G. for those cheap shots we took when we arrested her. So kick off your boots, missy!"

Inside the infirmary on the Big Whale, G.G. and Fin 2 finally had a space to themselves. G.G. shut the door behind them and programed a temporary lock. Before she could turn around from the door lock, Fin 2 grabbed her arms and practically lifted her and moved her to a bed, her biotics flaring brightly. G.G. responded with faint biotic tendrils that were rising from her body as Fin 2's lips ran along her neck urgently. "Embrace…"

G.G. pushed Fin 2 back a little, "Wait, I thought you wanted to do things to me before we…"

Fin 2 quickly undressed G.G. and wiggled out of her uniform. "I've given up on that and I want to enter your body and your mind right now!"

The chime for dinner gathering came on the PA. Fin 2 cursed, "Shit, did we run all afternoon to find a place to fuck?"

G.G. laughed. "Yes, we did, Alia." Her biotics flared brighter to match Fin 2's as her eyes turned black. "Embrace Eternity."

Dinner was set up in banquet style that reminded Shepard of the banquet they had on the SR-1 before Ilos, but the faces around the long table had changed. Aethyta was finishing her story of the Winter Games on Irune and everyone was laughing at the image of the Matriarch rolling a dozen volus around with her biotics. Shepard laughed and thought it handy that Aethyta moonlighted as a bartender- she sure knew how to hold a room. Shepard looked past Aethyta and saw Liara's head bent slightly and her face didn't display laughter. The asari maiden sat quietly next to her father, staring at the drink in her hand as though she was peering deeply into her own mind. Again, the soldier was taken by the change in the asari's face- that profound beauty was radiating but it somehow pained Shepard to watch it for too long.

Later that evening when they were alone in Liara's bedroom on the Big Whale, Shepard took off her uniform shirt and Liara was unzipping her asari dress, and Shepard saw that quiet look on Liara's face again.

Shepard stood behind the asari and helped her unzip her dress. "Your beauty is painful to watch sometimes." Looking at the asari's bare back, the soldier confessed.

Liara turned around and faced Shepard. "It saddens me that I cause you pain."

The soldier sat on the bed in her tank top. "You didn't cause this pain, Liara. In the past two years, your beauty has turned more striking, and you've changed so much, for me and for this second chance I have now. I have changed so much too. I used to know which line to fall in. I know I have to fight the Collectors now, but I'm just going through the motions, to build a team and to prepare. I feel so lost sometimes." An old guilt returned as Shepard remembered the first time she kept Liara on the SR-1 while searching for Benezia, and she wished she hadn't dragged her lover through all this again. What if she had let her go when they were searching for Benezia and Saren? What would Liara's life have been like then? Tali was right, all her friends had left something on the SR-1, and Liara had lost the most. Shepard lowered her head to hide her eyes that were turning red.

Liara saw Shepard's thoughts clearly. Even without melding the soldier's face was more expressive to her than anything she'd ever tried to read. She tipped Shepard's chin with her hand. "I would have done it over and over if it meant I could have you back. Remember what Cyga said in the Tuchankan desert? When the desert gives you a gift you accept it graciously. You are the galaxy's gift to me and I would not have it any other way."

The ache remained within Shepard and she made no move to meet her lover's gaze. And the ache was getting almost too unbearable, and Liara saw it. She leaned in slowly and brushes her lips lightly on Shepard's red lips, her breath was hot and as she pulled away from the human, she whispered, "It pains me to see the burden you carry within you. You're taking the lion's share of fighting for the survival of the galaxy. I'm helping you with the fight whether you like it or not. But the guilt and pain you carry inside is something you hide even from me. I wish to share that burden with you. Would you let me?"

Tears flowed on Shepard's face. "I worry that I won't come back from beyond the Omega 4 relay, heck, I worry that I might get killed in the next mission. We all fear death, but I also fear it for you. Then I think about even if we all make it through this Reaper business, I'm still a few lifetimes short of your life. But the moment I see you, all my doubts just disappear. All I see is this most beautiful thing in the galaxy and the kindest person who takes my breath away. And I want to be selfish, and to let you be with me even though it might hurt you like it hurt you when I died. That's the last thing I want for you…" Her voice broke, "but I have no one else to share with."

The loneliness in Shepard's voice was unmistakable. Liara had never heard the soldier asking for help so desperately and it broke the asari's heart into pieces. She held Shepard's face lightly in her hands and wiped her tears as they came down, "In our ancient culture, sharing burdens was a profound gesture. It meant that you were putting your chance of survival into another's hands. It is a lost practice now, but I quite appreciate its meaning." She looked into the human's emerald eyes and asked once again, "Would you share your burden with me?"

Through her tears, Shepard could see Liara's face. An angelic face yet she sang no heavenly chant, she only stared with warmth in the immeasurable depth of her blue eyes that made Shepard's heart pulse faster and her organs tremble. The openness in her lover's eyes beckoned, and Shepard could see clearly through them, without linking minds even, and she could almost feel the rhythm of the asari's heartbeat and ever so slight hum of her biotic energy gathering in her center. Feeling Liara open herself up, revealing anything she wished to discover, Shepard could only offer to take down her own defenses. "I know we said we love each other, but without sharing our fears we cannot completely share our love."

Shepard reached up and took Liara's face in her hands and pressed her lips into Liara's lush blue lips and felt the biotic hum from the asari's center radiating outbound and touching her skin with tingling warmth that dried her tears.

Liara accepted the caress of the human's lips on her own and her neck, feeling her own energy gathering inside and coursing through her body. She wanted to hold her lover this way and to be held this way, and never let go. She responded to Shepard's whisper. "I shall go where you go and I will follow where you lead."

Love required no guarantee, yet both the human and the asari sensed the need to offer their entire being to one another. As the human's lips trailed along the asari's neck, she heard small whimpers turning into deep moans. She picked the strings that held the long dress on the asari's body and let them drop. "I've never thought myself as such worthy leader."

Liara pushed Shepard deeper into bed and started to take her lover's pants and tank top off. "You're something far better." She approached the soldier, who was now leaning against the pillows, naked, in slow steps with her hips swaying and her biotics dancing around her body. Her eyes slanted to soften the view from the light in the room, and she climbed onto the soldier's body. "You're worthy to have my heart."

The joining of the minds was deeper than they had ever experienced. Every lick of a nipple and every flicker of a finger inside each other had never felt so utterly earth moving. The deep moans of encouragement and the quickened grunts of begging for release echoed in their joined senses and they held on to each other desperately anchoring one another in anticipation. All thoughts of past and future vanished, and the only thing present was the pounding heat that arched and contracted their bodies, working its way to eruption. With the warmth of their joined minds fueling the heat, their bodies reached the height of their climax as they both realized they had stepped over a threshold that they'd never trod before, and their bodies trembled in the aftershocks of their orgasms that were amplified by the newly found closeness. Even after their bodies had release, their minds lingered together.

"Was that a true union?"

"Have we just committed ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives?"

Laying in darkness and sensing the languor in her lover and her wakefulness, Shepard whispered, "Now I have a bigger reason to come back for and a bigger fear for not coming back."

"Two sides of love." Liara answered quietly. "What Feron said at the ceremony today. Each love has two sides, and to be bonded is to accept both sides and that's when true love begins."

"I love you, Liara."

"And I love you."

Two decks below Liara's bedroom, Onyx was pacing in one of the Big Whale's many smaller communications cubbies that the old Shadow Broker's agents used as their own comm rooms. A small platform in the center occupied most of the space and Onyx finally climbed up the short steps and came to the center of the circle. A kinetic control panel appeared on the edge of the platform and blinked a button for initiating a call. Onyx stared at the button for what seemed like an eternity, "Shit!" She cursed and tapped the button.

After a moment of silence, Aleena's sleepy voice came on, "Oh, hey! What's up? Are you alright?"

Onyx quickly glanced at the chrono on the cubby wall, "Goddess, I woke you! What time is it there? We're still on the Citadel Standard time."

Aleena rubbed her eyes to look at her own time, "Well, we're in the Terminus System. We use a different standard."

Onyx was ready to end the call. "Right. I'm very sorry, I'll let you go back to sleep."

"Please don't. I'm already awake." She pulled a light and floating long gown over her slender frame and tied it in the front with a thin sash. "Where are you anyway?" Aleena took a small disc that functioned as a remote QEC transmitter and put it on her desk while sitting down in the chair next to it.

"That's classified information. I can't tell you, I'm sorry." Onyx rubbed her forehead and started to say something but stopped. She asked instead, "How are you doing?"

"Fine. The weapons you gave us are arming 10 squads of my fighters." Aleena tilted her head and studied Onyx's image on her QEC.

Onyx nodded. "Uh,huh."

"Klang found a place on the moon of our base planet where we can run combat sims." Aleena continued.

"Uh, huh." Onyx nodded again and then she added. "You know you don't have to report everything to me even though we're now fighting on the same side."

Aleena put an arm on her desk and pushed her face closer to the QEC device. "I know. I'm just killing time until you decide to say what you wanted to say when you dialed me."

"Oh, right." Onyx lingered a while longer and then she started slowly. "You said I could call if I ever needed someone to talk to." Aleena gave Onyx an encouraging nod and waited for her to speak again. Onyx asked, "You said you lost everything in that battle, what endured?"

Aleena dropped her arm from her desk and sighed. "You think you're the only one who's carrying baggage?"

Onyx raised her head and stared intensely at Aleena's image.

"An entire company of my fellow solders died in Halica, some of them I've known since my maiden years. I'm still here and breathing, and they're not. Something inside of me died too with them. But I'm going down fighting on my own terms and I made damn sure I'm fighting with the right people, people I can trust. You said you trusted me, do you only trust me with those guns and nothing else?"

Buried sorrows were unearthed and Onyx wasn't quite ready for it. But then again, how could anyone be ready for such things? The conflict between letting the past go and facing her demons was greater than any battle she had fought. Until Aleena, Onyx had long ago decided to let the old wounds lie, she had always told herself, _we're all walking wounded. Why should I be so special? _

"You are special." Aleena broke the silence. "Most people on that warship followed their orders and called it a day. They did their jobs and it wasn't their fault or their responsibility for what happened. But you, you didn't forget us, and you searched for one of us even after we were long forgotten. And you wonder why I have forgiven you?"

"You shouldn't have forgiven me!" Onyx's voice came out sharper and louder than she had intended. The dark cloud was gathering and the storm was threatening to break within. Onyx could feel the pressure behind her eyes and her head was pounding "I should be judged by the consequences of my actions, not by the explanations."

Aleena continued to study Onyx, trying to catch the nuance in Onyx's voice through the flickering image. "There's more to it than what you've told me, isn't there?" She voiced her observation.

A leaden sensation pulsed through Onyx, and she sat down on the small QEC platform and she drew her legs in and held them tightly to her body. "There was a kid." She took a long pause. "The asari I went to rescue had a kid with me. I'm the kid's father."

Aleena was silent through a long sigh and she kept quiet after that, which Onyx took as not a good sign. She lowered her head and put her face between her knees and remembered the innocuous look on the kid's face when she found her father and asked for help to find her missing mother. It was months after the battle of Halica. Onyx was still frantically searching for the missing asari when a kid not even at maiden age showed up and asked to see her father. "I'm Misha. I was told you were my father and I need your help to find my mother." The desperation in the kid's voice had paralyzed the commando.

Onyx lifted her head and continued to recount her story. "Her mother and I had known each other since recruitment training days and we stayed friends. She wanted a kid but she didn't have a partner or bondmate, she asked me if I would father her child since I had some desirable traits as she called them. She wanted us to stay friends and I wanted more. She thought if she let me father her kid we'd keep a connection but she didn't want me to live with them or be an active part of the kid's life."

Aleena asked in a soft voice. "But the kid found you?"

Onyx nodded but she didn't look up to see Aleena's face. "Everyone from the military had told her that her mother was lost, and she had nobody else to turn to. She tracked me down after the military unlocked her mother's bio-records that had my name as the kid's father. She found out that I was in charge of a commando unit and she came asking for help."

She stopped and remembered the kid begging her, "I learned that my mother didn't want you to be in our lives. But I'm hoping you don't hold that against her and help me find her. They said she was MIA but not KIA. Why aren't they looking for her?"

Onyx didn't know what to tell the kid but she told her that she'd look for her mother. "That was not the way I wanted to get into the child's life." Onyx lowered her knees and sat cross-legged now but still not looking up at the image across the quantum waves. "When I finally found her, her face seamed like leather the way I had never seen on an asari. Her voice cracked from her damaged vocal cord that her batarian captors inflicted when they were doing horrible things to her and her eyes... I couldn't look into those eyes while I held her bony hands as she slipped away. That was the last time I saw her or touched her."

Aleena's brows knitted as she remembered many sleepless nights, awakened from the nightmares of those tormenting years, she'd do anything to push out the images of her fellow captives who were half starved for many years to stifle their biotic abilities to almost none. And when the weakened ones died, their captors fed their bodies to varren they kept for entertainment and used as slave pen guards. The memories of her own demons demanded her to ask, "You didn't prepare her for the burial?" She didn't hide the disapproval in her voice. After a battle, it was usually the fellow commandos who were closest to the fallen ones performed the honor of preparation for burial.

Onyx closed her eyes. She had sat on the floor next to the dead asari's bed for hours. And during those hours, she was conflicted. She knew she should say her goodbye and prepare the body for burial, but all she could think about was how to tell this tragic tale to Misha. The kid would want a memory meld to see what happened to her mother, and she would have all the rights to ask. But how could anyone show such an image of her mother to a kid who had already been through so much?

"It was shockingly horrifying for me to see what the body and spirit of such a brave and vibrant being turned into, it was unbearable even for a seasoned soldier. It could destroy an innocent kid or at least scare her for life." Onyx stopped again, remembering how she was sitting with her back against the bed where the corpse was laying behind her and how she bit back the sobs and resisted the urge to look back. She would preserve what little dignity that was left of her one time close friend, for herself and most of all, for her kid. She would not let those batarian bastards take even more from the innocents and dig their knife deeper into her. The caretakers of the place found Onyx in the morning, sleeping on the floor next to the bed of the dead asari who had passed the night before, and they took care of the preparation of the body for the burial.

Aleena asked again. "What happened to the kid?"

"I supported her financially when she was growing up. She wanted to be a commando like her mother, and I served as her advisor remotely when she went through the fleet training, giving her pointers and listening to her problems. She was on one of the ships in the Citadel fleet during the Battle of the Citadel, and then her ship went back to Thessia and is now a part of the planetary defense force. That's another reason I wanted to join the Tuchanka Project. If there are more Sovereigns out there, I don't want them to reach Thessia and put her in danger. When Commander Shepard saved the Citadel she also saved Misha's life. I'll follow Shepard's lead anywhere if she says these Reapers are out there."

Aleena nodded. "You preserved the dignity of her mother by giving the kid a less damaging memory, and you helped the kid. You may not have done right by her mother, but you're doing the right things for the kid."

Onyx shook her head. "That's not all of it. I've never…" She paused, "I've never told her that I could have saved her mother's life."

Aleena's eyes sharpened. "You mean you left the kid in the dark on such an important thing?"

"What good would serve to tell her that her father stood by and watched while her mother was being burned, tortured and captured? What if she decided to cut me out of her life, then who would take care of her?"

Aleena stood up and propped her hands on her hips. "The reason we were forgotten was because everyone acted cowardly, nobody who knew what happened had the guts to tell the truth!" And she moved back closer to the QEC transmitter. "Don't you think the kid deserves to know the truth?"

Onyx stood up abruptly and walked away from the projection platform. Aleena's question made her wonder if she should've called this stranger and confessed her sins to her. But the truth was Onyx needed someone she could confess to, and the burden felt unbearable after the mission on Purgatory, after talking with Aleena about Halica. She couldn't find anyone in the asari military who understood her struggle. Those who heard about Halica told her "Well, it was an unavoidable tragedy and you did your job." Now the only person who understood how that tragedy had affected her was asking the same question she'd been asking herself for a very long time, a demon she hadn't mustered enough courage to confront. She sat down on the steps of the small QEC platform and wept.

Long after the tears dried on Onyx's face and both ends of the call were silent, Onyx stood back up and moved to the empty screen and brought up the comm control panel to end the call, thinking the person on the other end had been long gone. But Aleena appeared in the QEC circle.

"I'm sorry for losing control like that. You… touched a nerve."

Onyx's hand that was reaching for the control panel froze. "You're still here?"

Aleena sniffled which told Onyx that she too had been crying, and the tears on Onyx's face renewed. The darkness in Aleena's voice however had disappeared. "I'm sorry I'm not there with you. No one should cry like that alone. Please forgive me." Sighing, Aleena took a few moments to let Onyx catch her breath. "But you should tell the kid the truth. That's your only way out of the prison you're confined in."

Onyx wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "I know." She looked up at Aleena's image with teary eyes, and somehow found the source of strength to make up her mind. "Will you help me?"

Morning brought excitement to the Normandy crew and a surprise to the crew of Blue Sabre. When Liara opened the large door that led to the bowels of the Big Whale, she unveiled a skating rink that Garrus had help build in the large den that the yahg had used to keep his killer varren. Even the music was replicated from the skating rink on the Citadel. The joyful shock on Shepard's face made both her lover and her friend laugh as Liara and Garrus high-fived each other. As both crews riffled through two large bins of rollerblades for fitting sizes, Liara took out the two pairs of rollerblades that Shepard had bought for them on the Citadel. "I can dance on these rollerblades with you forever." With Leon Rusell's Queen of the Roller Derby tune blasting, the asari gave the human a light kiss and the soldier didn't need further invitation.

At the edge of the skating floor, Shepard and Liara returned from their excursions on the skating floor and found Garrus still held the side bar to gain balance. Both the human and the asari remembered how Ashley and Tali tried to help Garrus learn skating in the Citadel skating rink, and they came over and each took Garrus' arm and rolled with him onto the floor. Garrus held his elbows out like he was imitating a chicken and he gave his companions a nod to let go and glided off on his rollerblades. Just as his instructors started to smile for this sweet success, Garrus' right rollerblade slipped ahead of his body and he fell on his side. "Ha!" He shouted in excitement, "I learned an important lesson!"

Shepard and Liara each took Garrus' arm again and dragged him to his feet. "What's that, Garrus?" Liara asked.

"When you fall, try to fall on your side instead of on your back!" Garrus answered enthusiastically.

Shepard shook her head, "You're missing the point, Garrus. The important thing to learn here is not to fall in the first place."

Garrus still had a smile on his face. "Well, when you don't have access to a good sniper rifle you have to learn to live with a pistol."

Shepard steadied the turian as they made their way to the side railing. "Maybe some people are natural at this and you're just not one of them."

Garrus teased the human. "Or maybe Ashley is just a better teacher. She taught Tali to skate in seconds."

Liara came to Shepard's defense, "Shepard taught me to skate just fine."

Shepard shook her head, "No, I didn't. You took the floor and you just knew how to do it because you're amazing like that."

Surf music over the PA was suddenly interrupted, and Seryna's voice came on. "Level three alert, we're being hacked."

Like a well-drilled unit, Liara, Feron, Nightshade and the crew of the Benezia changed their shoes immediately and scattered to different parts of the ship to man their stations.

Liara summoned Glyph. "Who's hacking us?"

The info drone hopped next to the asari as they made their way to the main comm room.

"Unknown. But they've broken through our first two layers of defense."


	31. Chapter 31 Turning Point

**Second Life**

**Chapter Thirty-One – Turning Point**

The Illusive Man lowered the vid screen and adjusted his eyes to Anadius's turbulence atmosphere patterns through the panoramic window on Cronos Station. He was always amazed at how a brilliant mind could be so easily manipulated once it had move beyond the realm of sanity. He had only to mention Oriana's name, and Henry Lawson predictably jumped on the opportunity. Shepard's team was almost complete and the ship upgrades were going faster than planned. The Cerberus leader's mind had now moved onto his next target, Omega, the closest established real estate to harvest and restore what Shepard and her team might find beyond the Omega 4 relay. While the Illusive Man was quite happy with how he handled Shepard up to this point, he didn't trust the human to not interfere with his plan. She was unpredictable with her strategies on battlefield, but there was one thing you could always count on from the human Spectre: her innate desire to help others in need. And if Shepard got in the way of his plan for Omega, things would get very complicated. The Illusive Man couldn't take that risk. The last time Shepard was on Omega, his spies heard her say, "I owe you one, Aria."

With a short vid call, the Illusive Man had set Henry Lawson in motion and that would hold Shepard's attention for a while, just long enough for him to plant the seed on Omega. The Illusive Man pressed a button on his chair arm, and a door opened in darkness. Kai Leng walked hurriedly to his boss.

The Illusive Man handed the assassin a disc. "These are the details of our Omega plan. I'll make sure Henry Lawson hires the right people for the job, and I'll make sure Shepard gets some help as well. Between preparing for the battle beyond the Omega 4 relay and dealing with what Henry has planned, Shepard and the asari Matriarch will be too busy for anything else. We'll only have to deal with Aria and I have a perfect plan. Omega will be ours within a year."

Kai Leng accepted the disc and moved a couple of paces away from his boss and remained silent.

"What is it?" The Illusive Man sensed hesitation in the assassin.

"Why do you need Petrovsky? He's a fool and a romantic on the battlefield which makes him an even bigger fool." The assassin started.

"He's what exactly I need in this plan. A fool and a romantic." Smoke shrouded the Illusive Man's face as he nodded his approval at his assassin's assessment.

"Set me loose and I'll kill Aria and her top lieutenants. A sword in the right hearts and poison in the right drinks, and that's all you'll need. It won't take more than two months."

Ever since the Illusive Man helped broke the assassin from the Alliance prison, he had often admired Kai Leng's simple solution to all problems: kill the key players from the opposition and you win the game. If only things were that simple this time. There were many powers on Omega and he needed to oust Aria publically to take full control of these powers. He shook his head, "I need a war on Omega, not a few dead bodies. Not that a certain dead asari body wouldn't please me."

"I can wage a war." Kai Leng didn't back down.

This was the part where the assassin usually required more fine-tuning, the Illusive Man thought. "You don't know about war until you've heard the wailing of the wounded and smelled the rotten flesh of the dead."

Kai Leng conceded and he too knew this was the game he and his boss played. "No, but I do know about suffering."

"Which is why you're one of my top agents." The Illusive Man's voice softened. "We have a good plan."

Kai Leng smiled. "We focus Shepard's attention on the Collectors and on Dr. T'Soni while we make our move on Omega. Henry Lawson has no idea what role he's playing in this and that you're making sure he doesn't succeed?"

"Nobody is the wiser." The Illusive Man let out another smoky breath. "Remember, death is swallowed up in victory. You play the winning game and you'll have all the kills to enjoy."

The assassin smirked and then turned to leave. "I'm off to Omega."

xxxxxxxxxxx

Miranda rose from the large bed with deep purple satin sheets and put a silk robe on. She asked the man lying next to her. "Am I just your fuck buddy who goes on these secret trysts with you once in a while or do you trust me?"

The Normandy had docked at the Citadel. The Cerberus operative told Shepard that she needed to check in with her contact to see if they knew who was trying to hack into the Shadow Broker's network. The attack was thwarted by the combined efforts of EDI and Glyph's new algorithm that Liara had salvaged from the Benezia. Glyph's algorithms had been left there by the salarian from whom she'd taken the ship - the salarian had vast amount of information on security codes, rare IDs through transport gateways, and counter-code hacking programs that were easily integrated into the Shadow Broker's network. And even better the hackers had left tracks in their retreat and Liara and her team were now tracing them to find the source.

Miranda stood over the divan by the window of this luxury apartment on the Presidium with a view of the entertainment district. At night, neon lights shone through the panoramic window and music thumped from the nearby casino through the walls. But during the day, the streets were desolate with only a few cleaning crew working to restore the district back to its pristine condition for another night's spectacles. Miranda tightened her robe as she watched the street cleaners sweeping the streets with their robotic carts.

The man propped himself up against the pillows, and his eyes followed Miranda to the window. "No, you're not just my fuck buddy, you're my secret desires come true. And I'm telling you that Cerberus didn't do the hacking, or at least I have no knowledge of it." He paused for a beat and then he added. "I told you I'd marry you if you want."

Miranda let out a small huff and looked back at the man in bed. "Yeah, well. A loveless marriage may be good enough for you, Alex, but it isn't for me."

Alex Fulton looked away from the Australian and stared at the ceiling to conceal the slight change of color on his face that reflected the feeling in his heart. Miranda had the same retort every time he brought up marriage and many times, Alex wanted to tell her how he really felt about her, how he had always felt about her. But Miranda was the one with a clearer head- this wasn't the time for romantic pursuits when the galaxy was on the edge to face an all-out doom. Besides, he wasn't sure if Miranda felt the same way about him. Why complicate things when she would willingly climb into bed with him and share any information he wished to learn? "You and your bleeding heart." He went with his usual retort instead.

Alex Fulton rose to second in command within Ceberus in matter of a few years, elevated for his brilliant strategic planning of expanding the organization. Ten years junior of his boss, the Illusive Man, the board of directors viewed him as the successor to lead Cerberus into the next century, not only for his unmatched education and pedigree, even the Illusive Man knew that education wasn't a substitute for intelligence, but also for his quick wit and bottomless resources he seemed to be able to pull out of his hat when the organization needed them the most. The Illusive Man might talk big about how much Cerberus spent on bringing Shepard back and building the SR-2, but without the board's backing, he couldn't have spent a single credit. And without Alex's planning the board wouldn't have the billions to authorize the spending. It wasn't just the money Alex could conjure but he also had an eye for talent. Talents like Miranda Lawson. Alex often smiled at the fact that Miranda was loyal to Cerberus mainly because of his ability to understand her and put her in positions that fulfilled her ambitions and he made sure that the board of directors knew about this fact. One thing he kept to himself from the board and everyone else: even though Miranda was one of the many talents Alex had his grip on, the Australian was the only one who had a grip on him, or more accurately, had a grip on his heart.

"Why do you want to die, Miranda?" Looking straight into the Australian's questioning stare when she turned back from the view through the window, Alex added. "It seems that everyone expects hell beyond the Omega 4 relay, why do you want to throw your perfect life away? Is it because of Shepard? Do you feel responsible for her, ownership of her body?" He paused, "Like a child you can't have?"

"It isn't like that." Miranda paused with her objection and thought for a moment. "Well, maybe when she was still on my table, when I was still rebuilding her, but not anymore. She's a living breathing being, it's different now, she has feelings and she does things that put me in awe or even piss me off, like giving that convict access to top-secret files. Even after we argue, I still can't help feeling I'm responsible for her actions, her safety and even… her happiness. And I think she feels a certain kinship with me somehow too, even though she would deny it if anyone asked her."

Alex followed up. "Does she trust you?"

Miranda shook her head, "She listens to my reasons then she makes her own decisions."

Alex couldn't help but smile a little. "You talk like a mother talking about her child."

Miranda didn't counter that remark. She needn't hide this from Alex. "I want to hurt the person who might hurt her, but I would never tell her that either."

Alex sensed the conflict in Miranda and he realized why he was attracted to her at the first place. When Alex first met Miranda, the Australian was taking a history course that Alex taught. She caught his attention by completing the four-year course in eighteen months. And then Alex discovered that Miranda was already a rising star in cybernetics at a young age, a field he viewed as the future of humanity to stand tall among the galactic species.

"Why are you so interested in history, Miranda?" It intrigued Alex to find such a brilliant scientist in his advanced history class.

"One discovers the future in the past as both are part of a whole. When we look into the future we have to look into the past for just as many years and perhaps even more." Later Miranda told Alex how she'd used to sneak out her room at night in her father's castle in the Australian Wetland, into the giant library and immerse herself into the history books that seemed to have fascinated her to no end.

"And have you found the answers when you look into the past?" Alex was immediately attracted to this young rising star as his own mind was searching for what's beyond the obvious. He often stared at a wall-full of diplomas he had accumulated, but the more he learned the hard it was for him to find a focus in his life. "What am I doing here at this particular time in history?" He often asked himself.

"No, I haven't." The Australian had offered him a smile. "That's why I'm taking your class. I was hoping you could share some insight with me."

Alex shared more than his insight with Miranda- he shared his body with her, his mind and his ambition. When he joined Cerberus as one of the top directors he brought Miranda onboard, and they both flourished together within Cerberus. One thing still alluded him was how Miranda could be so passionate about the Lazarus Project to the point of disregarding her own life to protect the human soldier she had rebuilt, and he couldn't help but feeling the envy for her passion. _What joy it must be to immerse yourself so deeply that you'd give your entire being to it?_ He also reasoned that it was perhaps this focus and passion that made the Australian so oblivious to the love he had for her and regarded it as mere casual sexual encounters, and he was too proud to point this out to her.

"The Illusive Man's thinking is behind the ages." Presently Alex let out a sigh and changed the topic to his boss. "His undying fascination with human biotics is the perfect case to show he still can't catch up to the future. First it was Gillian Grayson, and then Subject Zero. It's fine that we develop our biotics in natural evolution, but we'll never catch up to the asari in biotic technology, just look at their amps. Our strength lies in what we've been always good at, terraforming agriculture, mech building and climate control. That's where we can compete and win against galaxy giants such as Binary Helix or Sonax Industries. And our future lies in cybernetics, which is why you're one of our top agents. You are Cerberus' future, Miranda."

Miranda kept her stare on Alex. "What about Shepard? Is she just a robot we built?"

"We're all tools. Many of us still believe in what Shepard's doing and what you're doing. Don't waver in your resolve to support her." The Cerberus second-in-command kept his topic on course, "The Illusive Man is planning something for Omega. We don't know what yet, he's keeping very tight lipped about it even to the board. Our usual sources have very little information on it, only that he's working with Kai Leng and General Petrovsky."

Miranda gasped, "The rogue assassin?"

Alex snorted, "Yeah, that Kai Leng."

"Isn't that against our protocol?"

Alex nodded. "Don't get me wrong, we've offed people before but it was always done by hiring outside help, assassins and mercs, so that they can't trace back to us easily."

Miranda looked at Alex's chiseled profile in the artificial light through the window, some times she could almost hear him thinking. "We've always paid our way and let the outsiders be the pillagers and murderers."

Alex nodded again. "But more importantly, we want to keep the Cerberus people staying in the organization. Most of our people are scientists, researchers, and information specialists who are gifted in some special ways. We don't work well with killers, and I don't mean soldiers like Shepard, but true killers like Kai Leng, killers at heart. The boss forgets that he's sitting on top of brilliant minds that think for themselves. He can fool the average people but he can't fool the independent thinkers. He's gotten arrogant and that rubs people the wrong way within and above the organization."

Miranda moved back to bed and sat next to Alex. "Am I safe from your people?" The Australian started to realize why Alex asked her how she felt about Shepard and her mission.

"As long as you care about Shepard's mission and stay on course to work with her, nobody will touch you. The connection you have with the Commander is just a bonus." Alex took Miranda's hand and brushed on the perfect skin. "We didn't join Cerberus to be a group of insane extremists, there is Terra Firma for those people, even though the media and the Alliance have an absurd misconception that these two organizations have the same goals. Our goal demands us to be smart with our strategies and with our assets. Shepard will be an important asset in the coming war and if the Illusive Man screws up with her, he'll have a hell of a time to answer to the board."

"And when he falls, you'll be the next in line to lead." Miranda shed her robe and climbed onto Alex's naked body.

"That'd be the logical conclusion." Alex said in a throaty voice and accepted Miranda's kisses.

Miranda trailed her lips up until she was eye to eye with the man who seemed to have the future of Cerberus in his grasp. "I have no doubt that you'll make sure the board knows about his failure."

Alex looked into the Australian's eyes and before he let the next erotic deluge hit him he offered. "Caesar was murdered by his friends. Never forget that."

xxxxxxxxxxx

Shala'Raan stood outside the completely sterile room at Huerta Memorial Hospital, watching the female quarian inside standing by the window, out of her enviro-suit. The quarian Admiral's face hid behind her mask but her trembling fingers that were reaching the lock on the clear double-sealed door betrayed her nervousness. She heard the asari who had greeted her at the docks and brought her here say, "The room is free of pathogenic microbes, it's cleaner than the 'Clean Rooms' on the Migrant Fleet."

Shala now understood why the hospital made her and her asari escort go through the decon process. With an encouraging nod from the asari, Shala activated the door lock and she took a deep breath before crossing over the threshold.

The quarian in the room turned from the window, her face was incredibly young but her body looked like a prune. She didn't have the straight back, almost the sway back, that was usually seen on a healthy female quarian. Her back was hunched, one arm bent and pressed against her side as though to help hold up her gossamer frame. Her hospital gown looked like a tent hanging on her bony shoulders and her head bent slightly as though it was too heavy for her neck to hold it upright.

"Carina?" Shala'Rann's voice was almost inaudible but the sharp intake of her breath was loud through her speech port and a barely suppressed sob escaped as she let out that breath.

The young quarian made motion to move, but she didn't succeed. She put a hand on the windowsill to steady her shaky legs but she put up a hand to stop Shala from moving closer and help her. She took a few breaths and finally found her balance. "Hello, mother."

Shala's gaze swiped up and down her daughter's body and for a moment or two, she couldn't bring herself to say anything. The young quarian stared at her mother's masked face and resisted the urge to turn back to the window. "You needn't come all the way out here. It's just an infection. The doctor said I should be able to beat it with the help they're giving me." She lifted a corner of her hospital gown to reveal several small discs attached around her ankles that dispensed antibiotics.

"Carina, you're so thin!" The daughter's thin and reedy voice only added to her mother's concerns. The doctor had told Shala that they were pumping antibiotics into Carina with a real time monitor to make sure the dosage was potent enough for a quarian without killing her with the chemicals, and the sick quarian should have a very good chance for a full recovery. But seeing her daughter in person, Shala wasn't so certain about that prognosis even though she couldn't deny the fact that the facility and the doctors here on the Citadel could provide far better care for her daughter.

"Mother you forget, I'm a dancer. This is the body of a dancer." Carina waved her free hand over her body to make the gesture, as she suddenly felt naked under her mother's surveying eyes. She added, "My suit is damaged. It's being repaired."

Of course Shala didn't forget that her daughter was a dancer, how could she? Dancers were stars among quarian people and Carina was destined to be a super star. If other dancers had conveyed the spirit of one ancestor, Carina's dances conveyed the spirits of them all. Her movements not only captured the music and dredw shapes with her arms and legs, but they stirred the sight and sound into something that seeped through your pours and embraced your body, until the fervor of the expression pulled you in and engulfed your entire being into that passionate moment and melted it down to mere tremors of your heart and catches of held breaths. After watching Carina's first dance recital, Shala understood why the dancers were held in such high esteem in quarian culture. In the crowded ships of the Flotilla, everything is recycled, reused and repurposed. Like scavengers, the quarians looked upon every scrap of metal and every piece of cloth with laser sharp eyes and swarm them with missile guidance precision. They'd lived in that way for so long that their eyes had not looked outward and far, like they used to stare out at the endless green hills on Rannoch and let their eyes be spellbound by the beauty of the landscape and their spirits lifted beyond the daily nitty-gritty and their imaginations flow to the past and the future. Carina's dances had moved the focus of their eyes outward and far and it had inspired a journey within to the long lost homewolrd in everyone's own imagination. Many times Shala heard people say, "Our homewolrd is beautiful, isn't it?" After they had watched Carina's dance and those people had never laid an eye upon the land.

Dancers like that came only once in a blue moon. A star was found when Carina performed her first dance on the Flotilla, then not long after she was lost. Carina went on her pilgrimage like all other quarian kids, but she never came back and that was over five years ago. Looking at the woman standing stiffly by the window, Shala realized this wasn't the child dancing to the beat of music in a more innocent time and she missed the way her daughter's eyes sparkled when she spoke.

Shala finally found her voice as she took a few steps towards her daughter. "The way you talk and wave your hand reminds me of your father."

Carina lowered her head. "Is that hurtful to you that I remind you of him?"

Shala couldn't tell if it was sadness or bitterness behind her daughter's words. "Some, but it also comforts me that he lives on in you." Seeing no reaction from her daughter, the mother added. "Your father loved you."

Shala's voice sounded almost distant. Carina wasn't sure if it was because the drugs in her system that was blocking her hearing or the memory was seeping in, but she could hear her father's voice loud and clear.

"You're a disgrace to our clan, to the memory of our ancestors and to the Migrant Fleet!" Her father voiced his disapproval over the holocall after Carina told him that she wouldn't be returning home from her pilgrimage. She'd instead head to Thessia to study dancing at a secluded training center at a base of green hill with short waterfalls and nests of birds.

Her father's family is famous for their top engineering talents and military strategists. Han'Gerrel was the top protégée under her grandfather, and her father's family name to combat drone was what the weapons to Reegar's family of famed marines.

"To sell your dreams for tasteless food and to live like an exile, and dwell in strangers lands." When her father learned she'd abandon her family and live a life of an exile he questioned the motive of his daughter's decision. "What's wrong with living within the boundaries of our ways, and of our time?"

"Because they limit our thinking."

"You young generation! You think you know better than us!" The description of the dance academy his daughter had given cut deep in the father. She had told her father that the sound of waterfall and the view of the green hills were an inspiration for her dancing spirit.

"That's the nature of the young, isn't it? What's the point to have children if you don't expect them to do better than you?" The young quarian had made up her mind and she didn't hear the hurt in her father's voice. The shame that a father felt because he couldn't provide for her daughter, the green hills and the waterfalls, without having a planet of their own, a homeworld.

"You carve wounds upon my flesh and write there in salt." The young quarian didn't understand the true meaning of her father's words and she went on to chase her own dreams and that was the last time she had ever spoken to her father.

Hearing her mother tell her that her father loved her, the dancer shook her head. "He had a very funny way of showing it." Carina held onto the windowsill desperately in the hospital room. The doctor told her she shouldn't be out of bed, but she didn't want her mother to see her on her back and she wanted to show her mother that she could indeed take care of herself. She told herself not to give in to the shakes in her legs that threaten to buckle, but fatigue swiped over her and she had to clenched her teeth not to give in to the tiredness she felt in her body.

Shala observed her daughter's body and the memory of her husband's last moments hurled at her at speed. "I wished I could see her dance just one more time." He had an accident when he was repairing a fuel leak on the Tonbay and he caught a deadly infection through the broken enviro-suit. Carina was traveling with a dance company at the time and by the time the new of her father's sickness reached her it was already too late. By quarian law, an exile was forbidden to return to the Migrant Fleet without an extensive trial and as a result she couldn't even attend her father's funeral.

The weight of the memory was too great and Carina's hand slipped off the windowsill and her knees buckled as she fell on the floor with a dancer's grace.

"Carina!" Shala rushed over her daughter's side and picked her shoulders up and winced as she felt the bones on Carina's shoulders and her back. The dancer's body shivered and Shala wrapped an arm around her skinny shoulders and another one around her waist trying to connect her suited body to her daughter's as much as possible as though to warm her up. But she knew that the room temperature was optimal to keep the young quarian warm and her shivering was from pain. Though it was difficult for the mother to say whether her daughter's pain was from her body or her mind. "Oh, my baby!" Shala's voice broke as she let out low sobs. "Please let me take you home."

The dancer looked up and shook her head, and through her shivering lips her voice came out firmly. "I chose a life of exile."

xxxxxxxxxxx

In one of the less busy cafes on the Presidium, Tevos directed her assistant to wait outside while she met with Aethyta and Shepard. "This won't take long."

The waiter led the Councilor to a private booth where the Matriarch and the Spectre were waiting. The Councilor greeted them and asked, "Why didn't you want to come to my office to meet?"

Aethyta explained. "Shala'Raan of the Migrant Fleet wishes to thank you for saving her daughter's life in person, and we all know a quarian Admiral can't just waltz into your office for a meeting."

Tevos shook her head. "I can't be in the same room with Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay. If the media got hold of this or snapped a vid of the two us being together, the result would be disastrous."

Aethyta didn't seem surprised by Tevos' controlled outburst. "So you asked the best hospital on the Citadel to treat the young quarian because you had a soft spot for her?"

Tevos calmed her voice. "She's the daughter of an Admiral of the Migrant Fleet. You know how I feel about the quarians, but the young one deserves a chance. She's a gifted dancer. I've never seen a quarian dancing before she performed at the last temple festival. Her moves could capture your soul."

Shepard chimed in. "So you can enjoy a quarian dancer's performance but you don't like the quarians."

Tevos' face never betrayed any emotions as she turned to speak to the Spectre. "They created something that they were afraid could ruin their future and put the security of the entire galaxy in jeopardy. Then they committed genocide on a sentient species, and you wonder why they live like nomads and rely on salvaging ships and strip-mining? The geth stopped their pursuit, which was why there's still a Migrant Fleet. I wouldn't count on such luck twice. I saved Carina's life because it was the right thing to do."

Shepard followed up, "While we're on the subject of doing right things, has the Council reconsidered my proposal of galaxy-wide preparation for the Reaper invasion?"

Tevos stood up from her seat, getting ready to leave. "Commander, while we sent you to investigate the potential Reaper thread, the galaxy doesn't stop and wait for what you'll find. The chrono marches on as sure as time itself. The economy of the galaxy still needs to be governed, the batarians still need to be watched and galaxy scums in the Terminus System are still taxing our military and civilian resources. You think just because you believe the Reapers are coming, Aria will stop her drug trade and ship pillaging?"

Shepard stood also. "I get that, Councilor. But what you don't seem to get is that none of them matters if the Reapers find a way into our galaxy."

Tevos didn't miss a beat. "Commander, I can't imagine what would happen if thousands of Sovereigns show up in our space as you warn us. Which is why I voted _for _the Tuchanka Project, but that is the asari Matriarchy's jurisdiction not mine. We all have our own constituents to please. And right now, my voters want a new Citadel aqueduct between the main water tower and the lower Wards, and that's what I'll focus my time and my mind for the next two months. I'm sure Matriarch Aethyta is more than capable of assisting you in your tasks as a Council Spectre."

Shepard watched Tevos walk out of the café and she looked at Aethyta who had already lowered her head and deduced that the asari Matriarch, a seasoned politician herself, knew better how the game was played and saw no further need to argue.

Aethyta's mood changed when she saw Shala'Raan followed the waiter to their booth. The two friends greeted each other and the asari Matriarch introduced the quarian Admiral to the Spectre. She also explained Tevos' position for not seeing the quarian Admiral in person.

Shala sat down on the offered chair and sighed. "I understand the Councilor's reason for not wanting to be seen with an Admiral of the Migrant Fleet. We're exiles." She looked at Aethyta, her grandfather's friend. "Perhaps you should also think about the political implications yourself, Matriarch."

Aethyta huffed. "I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks about this. Your grandfather and I go way back and I consider your family as friends. I'm here to support a friend. Anyone has problem with that deserves a head butt."

Shala turned to Shepard, "Friends outside the Flotilla are indeed hard to find, Commander. I'm here to see my daughter but also hoping to seek help from a friend that Tali'Zorah had spoke very fondly of."

Shepard tilted her head to give the quarian her full attention. "What help do you need?"

Shala took a breath. "Commander, we've lost contact with Tali and the squad of quarian Marines accompanying her. I'm here to ask for your help to find her."

"What?" Shepard's back stiffened. "I just talked to her not long ago and she said she'd contact me if she ran into trouble. What happened?"

"The captain of her vessel, the Neema, sent several teams out to look at dark energy phenomenon and anomalies in the geth controlled territories. Tali's ship was an old freighter but they installed a long-range communications array and the marines have been dropping comm buoys along the way so that they can upload any useful data. We've lost touch with Tali's team and I'm concerned."

Shepard knitted her brows. "Why doesn't the captain of the Neema send ships after them immediate after they lost contact? They could be in trouble."

The quarian Admiral spared a glance at Aethyta then answered the Spectre. "Han'Gerrel is too focused on gathering support for waging a war with the geth to take our homeworld back and he thinks everything and everyone is expendable. That's why he sent out several teams expecting many of them not to return. But I can't just stand by and wait to see what happened to Tali. She's very dear to me. She spoke of you often in the past two years and I hope that you consider her a good friend as well and check in on her."

Shepard felt anger gathering but she tried to keep her voice even. "I don't have a lot of friends left who still talk to me and I certainly don't want to lose Tali. You sent her alone with a small squad of fighters to the Far Rim and for what? To start an old war again? Why?"

Shala leaned back in her chair once again and felt alien among friends who were not quarians. She explained, "In the old days when our ancestors still lived on Rannoch, when someone died in far away planets because of the environment that they couldn't adapt to, we called it Rannoch sickness." She paused for a beat, and then she added. "What other species will never understand is our deep connection and our reliance on our homeworld that even after generations of separation that connection still can't be broken."

Shepard thought about the Rannoch Memory Core Tali carried as a birth sign, and she sighed. "But you fought a war and you've lost. You know you can't win in a war against geth. You might face annihilation."

"Commander, would you call something your passion if it costs you nothing and carries no risk? You know loss and you know passion. We too know loss." She stopped. Her daughter's bony shoulders still jabbed at her hands even now that she had let her own flesh and blood go once again into self imposed exile. "I know what loss is, and so do Han'Gerrel and Rael'Zorah. Both of them made a pact with my late husband that they'd each build a house on Rannoch for their children. Judge us by our actions, Commander, but never judge our passion, for it has as much weight as that of yours."

Shepard's hot anger turned cold but the agony of fear still gnawed at her, the fear of losing Tali. She met Shala's masked face. "Fair enough, Admiral. But your passion doesn't give you the right to handle your people's lives in such a cavalier fashion. You send your young on pilgrimages to learn from their experiences. Tali learned more than anyone in the Migrant Fleet and met challenges beyond what you could imagine. I'm not saying she should be treated differently but I had hoped that your people would treat her with care. I had thought she might be safer with the Migrant Fleet, but now I have full intention to take her back with me. At least I won't send her on suicide missions that fish for information at best."

"Then you'll help find her?" Shala's posture relaxed noticeably.

"I don't have a choice. Just like you came to see your daughter. Tali is family."

xxxxxxxxxxx

In a large processing plant of Zorya's refinery, Vido Santiago paced in front of giant refinery tank that was the size of a football field and filled with water. Through the clear tank wall, he could see a long metal rod that was connected to the power grid overhead. He grinned at the thought of revenge as he waved his people to bring their captive to the tall platform that overlooked the water tank. He gave a quick nod and one of the mercs that was holding the captive lifted the blinding hood and revealed the asari.

Vido let himself relish the moment for a bit before he spoke, "Greeting, Dr. T'Soni. We meet again."

Liara waited for her eyes to adjust to the sudden light when the hood was removed and she tested her hands bound behind her back. She had been following up on a lead that might help find out who hacked into the Shadow Broker's network. The trace led her to Illium and she was to meet someone who said he might have the information but that was the last thing she remembered.

Presently Vido waved his arm at the control room above the tank and the platform deck. A large crane moved a loud hydraulic gear and lowered a small forklift to the platform. The mercs holding Liara moved her onto the forklift and tied her arms and legs to the metal support behind her.

Vido walked over to stand next to the bound asari and pointed at the water tank below them. "Do you remember my friend whose knees you blew off? He can't walk to the bathroom without a cane now and he's moved back to his parents' house. He had vowed to kill you when he gets his metal legs installed."

Liara's mind was going over different facts of the matter and one thing was clear, Vido couldn't have hacked the network. He was the muscle for hire. Then who hacked the system and why? Liara glanced at the pool below the platform quickly, and then she smiled at Vido. "I pity his parents for having trash in the house that they can't take out."

Vido didn't hide his sneer when he waved at the control room. "I think you should pity your little precious Commander when she gets this vid."

Liara could see the man in the control room whose arms moved about the panels. And when he finally pressed a kinetic button, the metal rod in the water zapped with electricity that disturbed the still water. Liara suppressed a gasp and commented. "Cute."

Vido laughed nervously. "I like your spirit, asari. Let's see how much of that is still there when I'm done with you. My contract prohibits me from killing you but it says nothing about torture. Think of this as your payment for taking our my friend's knees." He looked at the operator in the control room again, "Dunk her."

The frigid water socked her body, but Liara squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw to not let any more air out of her lungs. Her body's flesh and nerve structure wanted to quiver but she knew she needed to conserve energy. She opened her eyes and saw spotlights shining through water from all directions and cameras aimed at her on each wall of the giant refinery tank. Liara understood Vido's words— they were recording her torture to blackmail Shepard, but for what purpose Liara wasn't clear. As she waited for the electric jolt, Liara looked into the camera and told herself:

"For Shepard's sakes, I won't break!"


	32. Chapter 32 For Which We Weep

**Second Life**

**Chapter Thirty-Two – For Which We Weep**

"Tali'Zorah to Kal'Reegar, come in Kal!" Tali stared at the dusty console in an ancient quarian structure, waiting for it to come online so that she could search for any kind of defensive system that might help the quarian marines outside the observatory to fight off the geth. A geth drop ship had woken them up in the morning at their base camp. First came the shock troopers then the heavy units including Geth Prime and Geth Destroyer units and finally a Geth Colossus. If it weren't for the training and experience she had on the Normandy SR-1, Tali would have died with the team of scientists who got caught by the surprise attack. Even with all her fighting skills it still took the entire quarian marine team to get her to their target destination. Listening to the fierce firefight outside the observatory, Tali could tell the quarians were getting thinned out.

"Tali'Zorah to Kal'Reegar, come in Kal!" Tali bashed at the comm console in frustration. The geth might have been jamming their communications and she had hoped to use the structure's communication equipment to talk to her team. After looking at the data they were sent to Haestrom to obtain, she wondered if this was all worth it. Looking around in the dim room and the empty space, a bitter thought came to Tali: _will I die where my ancestors lived?_

"Tali'Zorah to…" Tali's voice was cut off by a beep on the console to notify her the system had come online. She quickly flipped through the schematics of the structure and then her shoulders sagged. This used to be a quarian transport warehouse and there were no defensive systems of any kind. A sense of peril weighed her down as she pushed the console deck with both arms and hung her head. "Shepard, I wish you were here."

Tali had lost count of how many times she'd wished she were still by Shepard's side. After the Battle of the Citadel, the quarian could have chosen any ship on the Migrant Fleet to be her home, and the captain of the ship would have gladly accepted her. The geth data that Shepard had given her as the fruit of her pilgrimage was a mere formality. Tali had always felt that her father had wanted a boy to carry on the glory of their clan, which was why she had always been a "daredevil" as her mother would call her. She'd do anything a male quarian would and what she had done on her pilgrimage on the Normandy instantly became a storied adventure for the entire galaxy and she finally felt that her father had accepted her as the rightful heir of the clan. Shepard had written a long letter to her father and the Admiralty Board of the Migrant Fleet after the Battle of the Citadel, detailing Tali's contribution to defeating Saren and saving the galaxy. "Without Tali's courage, dedication and her extensive tech knowledge we could not have achieved our goal." Shepard told Tali that she had written a similar letter to Garrus' father and that if Liara's mother or Wrex's father were still alive she'd done the same thing. "My mother and Ashley's family got to hear the details of our battles, everyone single one of you deserve the same." And for the ones who had given their lives while serving on the SR-1 including Kaidan, Shepard saw their families personally and gave them the detailed account of their child's death. She said that was the very least she could do.

When Tali started her pilgrimage she was very young and considered herself a scavenger like the rest of the quarian kids who were separated from their home for the first time. But in Shepard and on the SR-1 Tali found a captain and a sister, a new family and a much bigger purpose. Then everything was suddenly lost. Her mother used to tell her, "When you're old enough to go on your pilgrimage, do whatever you must to get something of value so that you can get yourself on a good ship with a good captain. You must get yourself accepted. A quarian without a ship and a captain is without a soul." When the SR-1 was destroyed and her captain died, Tali saw the devastation all the remaining crew felt, but nobody knew what it meant for a quarian to lose her ship and her captain on the same day. She held Liara when the asari wailed on the cold surface of Alchera, and she watched Ashley demanding a shuttle from the Alliance rescue ship to search for her Commander in the space where the SR-1 was ripped into pieces. But in those soulless days on the Citadel after the SR-1's remaining crew was brought back, Tali wandered the corridors with darkness in her thoughts. She wandered into the shop where Shepard and Garrus had bought her the new suit filter for her birthday and the sales clerk who didn't recognize who she was gave her cold stares and suspicious glances. She left the shop hurriedly and she kept walking until she was in the short corridor in the Wards where she first met Shepard who rescued her from the Shadow Broker's men. The desolate corridor was dim when the Keepers weren't doing any maintenance there, and Tali sat in the deep corner and wept alone in near darkness. She felt dirty sitting on the floor even though her new suit filter kept her body clean, even the tears were evaporated just as soon as they came, but how could she turn from a hero of the galaxy and a gem of the Migrant Fleet to a nameless pariah just like that?

The days of funeral preparations and memorial services were a blur. Watching Shepard's mother doing everything she could to keep it together broke Tali. She cursed herself for abandoning her ship and her captain. Why didn't she go and check on Shepard when they were being attacked? Perhaps she could have used her skills to save Shepard the precious few seconds to get into the escape pod with Joker or perhaps she should have dragged Shepard into the escape pod with her when she evacuated. In their many late night chats on the SR-1 when neither of them could sleep, Shepard told Tali, "If you ever see me doing something stupid, something that endangers the lives of my people, you promise me you'll slap me and make me see the truth." Tali thought saving Shepard's life would have been the right thing to do and she had cowardly flunked it. Liara at least had a reason for not going with Shepard since the Commander gave the asari a director order, what was her excuse?

When her father summoned her back to the Migrant Fleet, Shala'Raan had told Tali, "Join the Tonbay, child. I made a promise to your mother that I'd look after you as if you were a sister to Carina. I want you under my protection." But Tali didn't take her auntie Raan's offer and she joined Han'Gerrel. She needed a captain whom she didn't care about, and a captain who didn't care if she went through the geth minefield and landed on Rannoch just to see the barren landscape to imagine a picture her old captain, Captain Shepard, had put in her mind: "I wish you had a homeworld to go to after all this, like Liara and Garrus, so you could plant trees and make babies one day."

A small cottage in a luscious dell. Tali had framed her fingers and seen the picture of her home, a real home for a homeless quarian. She decided to join Han'Gerrel's crew and take up his cause to take back their homeworld at all cost. But looking at the data she collected, it wouldn't help them defeat the geth; it would only lead them to new destruction.

"Tali'Zorah to Kal'Reegar, come in Kal! Please respond! Is there anyone out there who can hear me? Please! Anyone still alive?" She tried calling into her comm until her voice was threading and when she didn't get any response she sat down in a dark corner of her ancestors' dwelling. On the floor in the dusty ancient structure on this forsaken planet called Haestrom, her back against the corner once again, Tali felt the echoing in her head like a distant ache. "I have failed again." She had failed to save Shepard's life, and she had failed those marines who gave their lives to protect her here on Haestrom.

Tali once again wept like she did on the Citadel in that dark corner of the Wards as once again she felt lost and darkness. "I'm sorry, Shepard."

A familiar voice tumbled on her comm. "Tali, come in! This is Shepard. I'm here with Kal'R... I'm … to get you. Tell me you're still in there."

Tali's hair on the back of her neck stood up. "I'm either dreaming or hallucinating. How long have I been out?"

The voice became louder and steadier, and it was unmistakably her old captain's voice. "Tali, this is Shepard, please respond!"

"Shepard! How did you find me? It doesn't matter. I'm still here in the observatory."

"It's good to hear your voice, Tali. Stay put. We're getting to you. Just hang tight. Shepard out!"

It was indeed good to hear her old captain's voice. Tali immediately went to work to unlock the doors of the outer structure for Shepard's team to get into the observatory. When the inner door opened and revealed Shepard in her N7 armor, Tali threw herself onto the human, her body trembled with unleashed tension. "I can't believe you're here! I can't believe you're saving my life once again. I can believe…"

Shepard held Tali tightly and soothed her trembling. "Hey, hey, it's alright, Tali. I'm here and you're safe." When the quarian calmed down, Shepard let out a sigh of relief. This was the Tali she knew, not the distant and coy quarian she saw on Freedom's Progress.

Shepard observed the change in the quarian's posture. The shy Tali who used to always hide behind either Wrex or Garrus in meetings on the SR-1 was no longer here. She moved away from Shepard and quickly recovered from the initial shock of seeing her old captain. "Tali, I had thought to spare you from the dangerous mission I'm about to embark on, but I can't trust anyone to look after you but myself, not even your father. I'm very pissed off at him for not giving you sensible guidance."

Tali sighed also. "Please don't blame him. It was my choice to join Han'Gerrel vas Neema."

Shala'Raan's words echoed in Shepard's mind, the quarians were seeking to renew the war with geth. "If he thinks he can fight the geth and win, he's a dreaming."

Tali shook her head and in a more matured tone than Shepard remembered, she explained. "He's not a dreamer, Shepard. He's something much more potent. Merely dreaming and gathering information won't quench his thirst. He wants death and victory. But I'm afraid it won't be the geth's death and quarian's victory but the other way around." She paused for a moment, "And there is something else he's planning, I don't know what it is exactly. My father knows and he isn't telling me anything. But I sense something dangerous in their plan and they might have me playing a part in that plan."

With a heart-tugging abruptness of the first time Shepard jumping in and defending her in front of the Council, the human moved a step closer to the quarian. "Tali'Zorah, you're now a part of Normandy SR-2 crew and I declare I'm officially your new captain."

It took no small effort for Tali to suppress a sob and the urge to hug Shepard again. "Aye, aye, Captain!" After a brief pause, she replied simply.

Shepard's nervousness while waiting for Tali's answer disappeared and she smiled widely as she hugged the quarian. "Welcome home, little sister."

Tali's effort to stay calm failed this time and she wept in Shepard's arms.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Vido Santiago smirked as he walked through the door that opened to the long platform leading to the top opening of the refinery tank. Refinery workers used the platform to monitor the efficiency in the tank when they extracted eezo from raw ore. The tank that stood below him has been uncovered from the top and filled with water that was pumped directly from the unprocessed source to cool the refinery tanks. The water wasn't safe to drink but it was harmless to the skin. Vido squatted on the platform and took a closer look at the asari under the water who was clamped to a forklift frame that was controlled by the crane overhead, and a lightning rod that was secured on the edge of the tank and linked to the power grid. He waved a hand at the control room that sat a few feet above the platform and waited for the asari's body to spasm when the electric current hit the water.

The man with sandy blond hair in the control room hit the kinetic button, but nothing happened. Vido waited for a moment and then looked up at the control room and made a motion for pressing a button. The blond haired man said through the PA, "I pressed the button. It's not working." He tried pressing the button once again and again nothing happened. Vido knitted his brows and waved a hand signal to lift the asari up from the water and he didn't wait to watch the crane move the forklift up as he hurriedly climbed the ladder to the control room.

Inside the control room, blondy at the helm was bending down and tracing the power and connection lines from the back of the panel to the grid. He opened the junction box and pointed at tangled wires to Vido. "The connection plug is missing. It was there a minute ago! I tested it, you saw it."

Vido looked at what seemed to be a million wires inside the large junction box and then he turned to his man. "Then how did it go missing?"

The man shrugged. "I don't know!"

"Well, you're supposed to be the tech guy. Figure it out!" Vido pointed at the junction box and gave the order.

"I'm a ship's tech but I know nothing about refinery equipment. This is just a front for our operation, those grease monkeys who work the refinery know about this."

Vido's eyes widened as he shoved the man, "Then go find one of them and figure out what we need to do to fix this. Do I have to think of everything?"

Liara shook her head to shed the water on her face when the crane brought her out of the tank. The water was cold but the room temperature was kept warm for eezo refinement. Her body stopped shivering soon after she was lifted out of the water and she looked up at her captors in the control room above the platform. Vido was waving his arms at the merc who manned the controls and finally the merc climbed down the ladder and disappeared through the door at the end of the platform. Vido followed down but he walked towards Liara.

"Problem?" Liara watched the metal rod under the water and prepared herself for the electric shock that never came. Watching Vido chasing the control guy out of the room, Liara suspected there was delay in this game and she should help prolong that delay as much as possible.

Vido stopped in front of the asari and sneered at her. "Nothing you need to worry about."

Liara tested him. "If it's credits you're after, I can pay you as much as your client who hired you to kidnap me. And better yet, I have crucial information on your rival gangs that can elevate the Blue Suns to the top of the food chain. Let me go and I'll give you that information."

Vido shook his head and snorted through his nose. "Not interested." Years ago the asari's offer would have been enticing, but not now. He was getting tired of running a disorganized gang where everybody had their own agenda and anytime someone waved a few credits at his men he'd lose a few of them to their rivals. He'd had high hopes for the young guy with a mohawk and this asari bitch ruined that too. He had regretted his actions against his only trustworthy one-time partner who started the Blue Suns with him and he ruined it by shooting him in the face. Zaeed was a general and he had ways of keeping his men loyal to him. Vido wasn't cut from the same cloth and he knew it. This job was supposed to be his retirement bid- the payment would be large enough for him to take the money and abandon the gang. He promised himself he wouldn't mess this up.

Blondy came back with a refinery worker in overalls and they both climbed the ladder and then came back down. The merc led the worker to Vido and motioned him to speak. The worker reported, "The connection plug is missing."

Vido cut him off impatiently. "I already know that. Can you fix it?"

The worker shook his head. "We don't have those in spare because they never break. Usually the control panel goes first before any of the plugs ever go bad, so there was never any need to repair them or stock them."

Vido rubbed his forehead with the back of his fist. "Well, can't you use another plug from another panel? We have other control panels."

The worker shook his head again, "We can't. These come in sets and if the serial signature from the panel doesn't match, none of the plugs will work. It's a safety measure to make sure that you don't plug the wrong things into power and junction that might break the machine. We have to order the exact same plug from the manufacturer."

Vido jerked his head slow. "And how long will that take?"

The worker thought for a moment, "Maybe two days."

"Fuck me!" Vido cursed. His deadline for producing a blackmail video featuring the asari's torture was due soon. He looked up at the worker and blondy who were staring back at him for orders. "Well, go and order them! Why are you still standing there?" The pair turned and rushed out of the door.

Liara bit her lips to keep herself from chuckling. She kept her face stoic when Vido came with a syringe. "Well, princess, take a nap while we're getting our equipment in order." And Liara saw darkness quickly come over her.

When Liara woke up again she found herself unfettered sitting on the floor against a wall. She scanned the surroundings as her eyes became focused- she was still in the large refinery room and sitting in a corner below the platform that led to the tank. The warehouse sized room had many levels of catwalks and platforms that gave access to various equipment, and now that she was no longer clamped to the forklift she could turn her head around and see the guards patrolling the room and two guards watched her from the tall platform above her head. Through the windows high above the platforms the asari saw that night was settling in.

Liara could feel the sluggish currents of fatigue stole along her limbs as she roped her arms around her body, "Conserve energy," she told herself. A small water canteen and an energy bar appeared next to the wall she was sitting against and they startled the asari as she could swear they weren't there a few moments ago. But then she thought she was probably too groggy to notice it. She drank all the water in the canteen and ate the energy bar.

Two days passed, and Vido brought back his smirk once again as he walked to Liara. "We have it now. Let's make that vid for your Commander to enjoy, shall we? Be sure to smile for the camera." He waved his hand at the control room and watched as the crane once again lowered the forklift that carried the asari into the water.

Vido gave his hand signal to release the electricity in the lightning rod with a smile spreading on his face. And then the smile froze and once again there was no electrical shock in the water. "You've gotta be shitting me! What the hell is the problem now?"

He once again ordered to take the asari out of the water, and he climbed into the control room and found his tech guy staring at the control panel with a shocked expression. "The switch for the fail-safe line is gone. I swear it was here this morning when the grease monkey installed the plug. I tested it myself! It was right on the panel!" His bewildered eyes jumped from the junction box to the control panel that now had a black hole where the switch used to be. He looked up at Vido, "Boss, we have ghosts in this plant! Have we killed anyone in this particular room? Did we build this refinery on an ancient burial ground or something?"

Vido pounded his fist on the desk, "Are you fucking kidding me? I'm going to blow your head off if you don't make this work right now!"

Blondy put up his hands in defense, "It's not my fault! Without a switch I can't do anything. The wires for the fail-safe system are enclosed in the metal casing so that when there is a fire the switch still works. I can't even short them because I don't have access."

"So it works when the place is burning down but it doesn't when the switch is missing?" Vido's eyes were breathing fire as he pushed his face closer to the tech guy.

Blondy nodded reluctantly as he shrank his face into his armor from Vido's angry stare, fully expecting a slap or worse. "Look boss, I'll get to the other plant and grab a switch from their panel. It isn't serialed so it should work with this machine." He tried to sound helpful and he was happy to see Vido gave in and waved him off.

Half an hour later, the tech guy came back to the control room. "I'm sorry boss, the switch on the other panel is missing also. I think someone is fucking with us."

Vido let out a loud cry of frustration and hit his gloved hand on the metal console and he doubled over holding his throbbing hand. "Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me!" He looked up at his tech guy and pulled out his pistol. "Give me a solution or this bullet goes through your head in 3, 2…"

Blondy's thoughts raced and he stopped his boss from pulling the trigger. "Wait, wait, wait! I got it! We can bypass this entire console. I can just rig a temporary handheld control from the power grid to the lightning rod. All I need is a small junction box and a handheld control. Give me a day, I'll make it happen."

A week after he had captured the asari, Vido's men had failed to use the equipment a mindless robot could operate and his deadline for shooting a torture vid had long passed. Looking at the 15-second vid in which his captive stared at the camera with a serene look on her face under the water, Vido longed for those days he crunched numbers while Zaeed did the dirty work and managed the mercs. "You think you know what it's like to be cunning, but you don't." Before he shot his ex-partner, Zaeed had said that to him. Vido had been cocky then. After all, he did take one of the biggest gangs in the galaxy from a tough guy like Zaeed. But now looking at the asari who had been sleeping for the most part of the week with a few trips to the tank like play rehearsals and without suffering any of the pain he had planned to inflict on her, Vido wanted to weep. He had shot two of his tech guys and he knew he could shoot every single one of his mercs in the head, but what good would that do?

He looked around the control room and counted more than five switches, plugs and gadgets that had gone missing, and wires dangling outside of their conduit where his own men stripped parts to build make-shift lightning rod controls. On their secure planet and in their secluded base, the room looked like robbers had pillaged through. He shook his head and stared down at the platform where the asari on the forklift looking up at him, and Vido Santiago let go of his pistol and sat next to another tech guy he had just shot to death and leaned against the metal console and wept.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

"I'll fix this!" Miranda's voice came out louder than she'd intended. Henry Lawson's ransom note hit her mailbox at the same time it hit Shepard's, and it took all but two minutes for the Commander to storm into her XO's office. Miranda knocked her chair over when she stood up abruptly. "I can fix this." She repeated in a more controlled voice.

"How did they get to her?" Shepard's panicked voice rattled both Tali and Garrus who followed her into Miranda's office. The ransom message came while the three old friends were chatting, but Shepard didn't even take the time to tell her friends what happened. She tapped on her omni-tool and a message from Henry Lawson played.

"I want Oriana, Miranda. I know you worked with Commander Shepard to take my daughter from me. I'm taking her lover as an exchange. Give me Oriana, and the asari won't be harmed. Otherwise the Commander will never see her again."

Miranda had moved back to her desk and straightened her chair and was now typing hurriedly on her keyboard. "I'm doing a trace on the message and sending information requests to my contacts. We'll find her, Shepard." Without looking up from her monitor, the Australian added. "I suggest that you contact Feron and utilize the Shadow Broker's network, and also let Matriarch Aethyta know about this and see if she could provide any additional help."

Shepard's panic turned into a rage. "I don't want to talk to anybody. I want to kick down some doors and drop some bodies! Lots of bodies!" Without waiting for a response from her XO, she turned and stormed out the room.

Garrus and Tali followed the Commander out but Shepard had already disappeared into the elevator.

Garrus blinked his dark eyes. "I've never seen Shepard so mad."

Tali put a hand on her hip. "Garrus, this is Liara we're talking about. Shepard must be going out of her mind thinking what might be happening to her love."

Garrus nodded "I wish I knew what to say to her that might make her feel better."

Tali thought for a minute, "Let me do the talking."

The pair walked into the Loft and Garrus picked up the chair Shepard had thrown across the room. "I see Miranda isn't the only one who abuses chair when she's angry."

Shepard flew over to Garrus in a flash and grabbed his armor and put her face close to the turian's scarred face. "Garrus, I'm not angry. This isn't anger, this is rage! If they lay a single finger on her, I swear!"

Garrus dropped the chair in his hands and gripped both Shepard's arm and looked into the human's eyes. "You know we'll find her and get her back, Shepard. We've been in much bigger fights before and you know we'll kick those bastards' asses when we find them."

Garrus gave Shepard's arms a firm shake to make his point and waited for it to sink in. Shepard calmed down a bit and sat on her bed and put her face in her hands. "I'm going to lose it if we don't find her by the deadline."

Tali moved from behind Garrus and sat next to Shepard. She put a hand lightly on Shepard's back. "We're talking about Liara here, she's tough and smart. She avoided being captured by Saren on Therum and she's much tougher now."

Shepard lifted her head and straightened her back. "That she is. Thanks for reminding me of that, Tali. And Garrus, you're right. I need to keep a clear head if we want to get her back soon."

Tali moved her hand from Shepard's back but kept her masked face to the Commander. "I do have one question for you, Shepard. Why don't you pick me up to join you when you don't have a friend of mine kidnapped? I would have liked to try a sushi restaurant on the Citadel. Maybe you could have taken me there. But no, as soon as I join up, Liara is in need of rescue, again, just like the last time I joined up with you. Is she trapped in a bubble again and will she yell 'Help! I'm trapped. I need help!' again?"

Shepard chuckled and realized the quarian's intensions. She feigned Liara's voice and said, "I pushed the wrong button." It made both of her friends laugh. Then the Commander sighed. "I just want my family back. Now I finally got you back and they took Liara."

Tali hugged Shepard. "I know, Shepard. But Garrus is right. We'll do it again, just like the last time." She paused for a moment, "Well, the last time we had Wrex, but we have Grunt to take his place this time around, so we're all set."

Garrus feinted a hurt look. "Hey, what am I? Chopped liver?"

Tali didn't miss a beat. "No, Garrus. If Wrex was standing here and you weren't, I'd tell him that the last time we had Garrus but this time around we have no one to replace him because he's the best sniper this side of the Perseus Veil."

Garrus looked at Tali, speechless with only his mandibles shaking slightly in an effort of trying to think of a response.

Shepard could swear she saw tears forming in those dark turian eyes. She stood up and picked up her chair that Garrus dropped and gave the turian a pat on the back. "Never argue with a quarian, Garrus. You'll always lose."


	33. Chapter 33 Mercenary Veteran and Thief

**Second Life**

**Chapter Thirty-Three – ****Mercenary Veteran and Thief**

In Eldfell-Ashland Energy's eezo refinery on Zorya, ear-piercing alarms blared through the entire area. Vido Santiago woke up and shouted into his comm. "What's happening?"

His sentry outpost reported, "We're being approached by an asari ship, frigate class warship. I think we've seen it before. It's the Blue Sabre. It chased us the last time we had the asari in our custody for the Shadow Broker."

Vido cursed while realizing his mistake for taking the asari to Zorya where he'd been seen by the asari warship and for not thinking that Shepard might know the captain of the Blue Sabre. But it's too late now for regrets, much too late and way too many regrets in the past week for him to worry about them now. What he wouldn't give for a small bag of red sand! But in an effort to improve the efficiency of his disorganized gang before taking the kidnapping job, he had ordered a shakedown and destroyed all the drugs around the camp. Vido put on his blue armor and went to his rifle case and grabbed Maggie, his imitation of Zaeed's Jessie. He snorted bitterly- Zaeed used to say his Jessie was a bloodthirsty old bitch that killed more people than he ever did, and Zaeed had killed a lot of people. Vido had never been in fierce battles and when he killed his own people or helpless captives who didn't fight back, a pistol was all he ever needed. Staring at his virgin rifle that had been sitting in a display case since the day he got it, Vido cursed again. "If I'm going to die, I'm going to take everyone with me."

He tapped the comm in his ear to the refinery room where they held the asari, "Set up turrets to automatically shoot anyone through the platform door and set explosives in the whole plant except the launch bay. We'll take the gunships out of here after I have a little fun with the asari commandos."

Aethyta sat in the captain's chair on the Blue Sabre, still grumbling at the plan that didn't involve her personally ripping the heart out of the person who took her daughter into captivity and blackmailed Shepard. But the Normandy was the one with a stealth drive that could hide better than the Blue Sabre and Shepard had insisted on getting to Liara herself. It didn't take long for Feron and Nightshade to find the Blue Suns' operatives on Illium where the Eclipse sisters were happy to rat out their rivals, and to track them down on Zorya whence Aethyta heard the Blue Suns were involved. She had chased Vido Santiago to Zorya before and Feron's agents quickly infiltrated the facility to get live feeds on the plants that showed Liara clamped to a forklift or sleeping on the floor. Shepard had exhibited a new kind of rage that the Matriarch hadn't seen before when they both saw Liara's limp form sleeping on the floor of the refinery plant and Aethyta wasn't going to get in the way of that rage. If that were Nezzy lying there on the floor, no force in this galaxy could have stopped her from kicking down the door and smashing anything that got in her way. Presently Aethyta settled in her decoy role - if she were to put on a show and attract the enemy's attention to give Shepard the cover she needed to get to Liara quickly, she'd put on fucking impressive fireworks to remember. Looking at the outposts of the mercenary base through her screen, Aethyta gave the order. "Fire all forward guns and keep an eye on gunships that might try to leave the base!"

While the Blue Sabre was making a big ruckus on the merc's outposts a couple of clicks away from the refinery, the Normandy dropped out of orbit quietly on the opposite side of the secluded camp and Shepard took her team and Dr. Chakwas on a shuttle to approach the refinery plant. After the initial shock and rage reacting to Henry Lawson's blackmail, Shepard had done exact what Miranda suggested and she had to give it to her XO for having a cool head. First thing's first, they had to get Liara back safely; and then they'd deal with Henry Lawson, for Oriana's safety. Garrus, Tali and Dr. Chakwas had done their best to keep Shepard calm during these last few days and it hadn't been easy. When Miranda voiced her concerns to Dr. Chakwas, the doctor sighed. "She was like this when Kaidan died. She was halfway to death herself and she looked for a fight with Ashley hoping that Ashley would hit her. She blamed herself for Kaidan's death. I can't imagine what she's feeling right now. We all know how much she loves Liara."

"We'll need a commander with a cool head in battle if we want to get Liara back safely." Dr. Chakwas' words didn't ease Miranda's mind.

Dr. Chakwas snorted. "You needn't worry about that. Two things you can always count on Shepard, doing the right things and keeping a cool head in battles. With all that's on the line, has she even considered giving up Oriana in exchange for Liara? No. Because she thinks you as family, whether you like it or not, and she doesn't ever turn her back on family. It's in her blood."

Scanning the entrance to the refinery plant where Liara was held, Miranda updated Shepard. "Feron has made a deal with the second in command on this base and told him that the Shadow Broker will pay those who retreat to the mines below the facility with refinery workers. That ought to thin out the forces we have to face."

Shepard nodded. "Do we still have the feed into the plant?" Miranda brought up the vid feed and pointed out the two sentry turrets and the mercs who defended the turrets. Luckily the control room was empty save for one man in blue armor. Shepard looked around at her team. "When we break for the main entrance we won't have a lot of time to reach Liara. God knows what they'll do to her. So keep your head together and move fast."

Sure enough, after the first few exchanges of fire with the entrance guards, Vido's voice came on the PA system. "Commander Shepard, I have what you came here for and I hold all the cards. Leave now or I may be forced to harm the asari."

Shepard asked Tali to patch her comm to Vido's through the feed link. "We can make a deal. Nobody has to die. You let the asari go, and we let you walk out of here."

"What if I'm not interested in a deal?" Vido's voice continued through the PA.

Garrus moved his eye from the sniper rifle sight and checked on his latest hit that had found its target. "Just our luck. A suicidal kidnapper!" As he commented into his comm, the turian took another shot.

Shepard gave a hand signal to make a move for the entrance while Garrus provided them with cover, but she continued to keep Vido's attention. "Come on, I've never met a mercenary who said no to credits. It's against your principles. I've got a lot of credits and I can spend them on you if you do the smart thing."

Miranda had to suppress a chuckle. Dr. Chakwas was right: she needn't worry about the Commander in battles. She looked over to Jacob, "While Shepard is busy talking shall we take out those bastards by the door?"

Jacob smiled and flared his biotics. "Ladies first."

Inside the refinery, Shepard's team made a beeline towards the plant where Liara was held. Vido's voice came back on the PA. "You may have broken through my front door, but you haven't won yet. I've got this plant wired with explosives. If you don't leave now, I'm going to blow us all sky high. And I'm going to drown your little precious asari in the pool."

Shepard cursed loudly and waved her team to charge for the plant door. With all his cards laid out on the table, Shepard was afraid Vido would do exactly what he threatened to do, like a man with nothing to lose. The door leading to the platform that sat on top of the tank was locked. Without a prompt from her captain, Tali went to work hacking the lock. Shepard brought up the live feed and saw the forklift moving by a crane overhead and taking Liara into the tank. "Shit!"

Tali's hands were flying on her omni-tool. Miranda moved to Shepard's side, "There are two large turrets inside aiming at the platform. I suspect they're set to automatically track targets through this door. We need a plan to either overload them or hack to disable them once we get through the door."

"I can sabotage them, but I'll need some time to get Chikktika there and hack them both." Tali offered as the door lock turned green.

Shepard shook her head. "No time. They're putting Liara into the tank now. I know asari can hold their breath longer than we can, but I don't think she can wait for that long."

Miranda wasn't done. "And what about the explosives?" But before she could finish her sentence, the door opened to the platform and Shepard took off.

"Bloody hell!" Miranda didn't have time to think and she threw up a barrier as she started running towards left side of Shepard. "Jacob!" She shouted as she was catching up to the Commander. Jacob reacted quickly and threw up his own barrier and raced towards Shepard's right flank and together they formed a biotic bubble that shielded the Commander from the relentless projectiles from the sentry turrets. Tali sent Chikktika flying to the turret on the right side and she hid behind doorsill and tapped busily on her omni-tool. Garrus aimed his sniper rifle and hit a servo joint on the left turret and turned its direction back to the mercenaries who squatted behind it.

Shepard didn't see what her teammates were doing, her arms pumping, legs pounding her boots loudly on the metal grid of the platform, her red hair flew in the air, and she leapt the last few feet in the air and threw her body into the water. Her heavy armor and boots took her into the bottom of the tank and she could almost stand straight up in front of Liara. The asari's unconscious form was clamped to the forklift and her head bent slightly and it wavered when Shepard's body stirred the water. Shepard clambered to Liara's side and searched for release of the clamps and found none. Just as she was about to take out her pistol to shoot the clamps, they suddenly popped open and Shepard quickly wrapped her arm around Liara's waist and kicked the bottom of the tank to surface. Jacob and Garrus pulled Liara out of the water and put her on the edge of the platform and then they pulled Shepard out.

Miranda didn't stop when Shepard leapt into the pool and continued her race to reach the ladder leading to the control room. A single body in blue armor lay across the control panel and wires dangled everywhere from the conduits and junction boxes. The Cerberus operative pushed the body off the control panel and saw the clamps on the forklift had already been released and no explosives trigger to be found. She investigated for a few more moments and seeing no more information to gain she returned to the platform and joined the team.

Dr. Chakwas directed Shepard, "Help me flip her over. We need to aspirate water from her lungs now!" After Liara coughed up the water in her lungs, her body went limp again. Dr. Chakwas scanned her. "Her vitals are normal. She's been sedated." Mordin activated the portable hover cart he had helped Dr. Chakwas carry from the shuttle and together with Shepard, they hoisted the unconscious asari onto the cart. Dr. Chakwas turned to Shepard. "I need to take her to the med bay to treat the water inhalation and re-regulate her systems. It looks like there's quite a large amount of toxins from sedative assault." With that, she turned and started cart with Mordin.

Shepard waved at Tali and Garrus. "I don't know what the situation out there is at the moment, you two make sure they get back to the Normandy safely."

Tali jogged to catch up with the cart and she held Liara's hand while walking beside her. Garrus docked his sniper rifle and uncollapsed his assault rifle. "I've got this, Shepard. Leave it to me."

Watching the group exit the door, Shepard turned to Miranda, "Who unclamped the restrains on the forklift?"

Miranda responded with a puzzled look of her own. "Vido was dead when I got to the control room. The turret took out half of the mercs and our team took out the other half. But who killed Vido up in the control room? And I didn't find anything that controlled the explosives?"

"Looking for this?" A gruffly voice came from behind them, everyone raised theirs guns and pointed them at a man with a scared face and a damaged eye. He held up an explosives trigger.

Shepard aimed her assault rifle at the man, "Who are you?"

Miranda trained her submachine gun on the man and took steps to flank him. "And how did you get in here?"

The man ignored the guns aiming at him and he tossed the trigger to Shepard and answered Miranda without looking at her. "Princess, I know this place like my granny's backyard, every nook and cranny, every bit of this stinking magnificent base because I built it with my bare hands and defended it with my old gal Jessie."

Shepard lowered her gun and caught the explosives trigger and checked it- the detonator was already disabled. "You released the clamps?"

The man nodded lightly. "The name is Zaeed Massani. I was hired to help you. Killing Vido was just a bonus. A damned good bonus."

Shepard signaled her team to lower their guns and then she asked. "Who hired you?"

"Cerberus paid me big bucks for the job." Zaeed said unhurriedly as he produced a half chewed cigar from his armor pocket. "To be honest with you, I'd do it for free. Vido and I had an old score to settle." He put the cigar into his mouth and bit onto it. "What I'd like to know is who's been sabotaging Vido's equipment. That person kept the asari fed and prevented Vido from torturing her. He put on a damn good show for me, and I'd like to buy him a drink."

"Buy _her_ a drink." A female voice came right behind the group as the crackling of uncloaking sounded. Everyone raised their guns once again, and now aiming at a hooded female figure.

Zaeed lowered his pistol and took the cigar out of his mouth, "Your cloaking is extraordinary. I can usually spot a shadow but you hid for over a week from Vido and his men, which I supposed was impressive enough, but nobody had hidden that long from me. May I have the pleasure?"

"Kasumi Goto at your service." The hooded woman took out a pouch and opened the drawstring to reveal a bag full of plugs and control switches. She turned to Shepard, "And I'm here to seek the asari Vido was trying to torture. I would like to follow her to your ship and get the intel I'm after."

Zaeed's mouth curled to one side and he docked his weapon. As he followed Kasumi to the door, he shouted to Shepard. "I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy playing goddamn hero, Shepard. See you back on the ship."

Shepard didn't know if she should ask Zaeed how he knew about Vido and this base so much or Kasumi why she sought Liara and how she tracked her to Zorya. Watching the two of them walking towards the door, Shepard made move to follow, but her right leg shot a sharp pain as her adrenaline settled. She tried to move her leg and only felt her body's sinking weight and as she looked up, the room was a blur. Everyone started to walk towards the door as Shepard fell backwards into the pool. The slash of water surprised everyone except Miranda who had been observing Shepard and lingered behind everyone, and as they turned around and saw the Commander dropped back into the tank, Miranda dove in after her. Jacob and Zaeed ran back to help Miranda get Shepard out of the water.

"I thought I saw she tripped a little when she started running on the platform." Miranda checked Shepard's leg, "She's been shot in the leg."

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Muffled voices slowly seeped into her consciousness. Shepard blinked a few times and the voices became clearer.

"EDI had suggested to lower the gravity in the Loft to prevent any damage to the furniture and injuries that might happen to her. I've never seen her raging like that." Dr. Chakwas' unhurried voice came first.

"Miranda told me that she had considered anti-anxiety modifications in one of her implants. It must have been very serious for her to modify what she calls her 'perfect creation'." Liara's voice was thick with emotions.

Taking a deep breath, Shepard said. "Talking about me behind my back?"

Both of her companions turned around and looked at her. Liara made short distance from Dr. Chakwas' desk to the bio bed and slipped her arms under Shepard's shoulders to give her a tight hug. "Thank goddess you're alright."

The sweet scent of the asari mixed with the disinfectant of the med bay brought back memories of Virmire, and Shepard felt a sudden sorrow when Liara pulled away. Dr. Chakwas moved to the bed and checked the monitor on the machine, and then she faced the Commander. "I was just telling Liara what a mess you've been in this past week and that all things considered we got off easy with only a bullet in your leg. But you know the drill, Commander, no strenuous activities until I give you the clearance." And with that she left the room.

Shepard raised her arms seeking another hug but the asari didn't budge. "Tali told me what you did in the refinery plant. You could have been killed. You know how important you are not only to me but to everyone."

"No more important than you to me." Shepard lowered her arms and gave the asari a grin. "Hey, my first bullet wound on the new body and it was for saving you. How cool is that?"

The asari couldn't help but let out a surprised chuckle. "You are impossible, Shepard." She bent down and hugged the human again.

"I can be even more impossible if you let me out of the bed and take you to my cabin for some quality time together."

"You can't get out of bed yet!" Miranda's firm voice broke the couple's embrace. A few others followed her into the med bay and surrounded Shepard's bed.

Tali stood next to Liara and pointed at the asari to Shepard, "I completed my first ground mission on the SR-2, escorting Liara back to the ship. I told her that you owe me a sushi dinner."

Shepard hid a smile and raised an eye brow, "Is that so?"

Tali nodded. "Liara told me about this great fish restaurant on the Citadel. So we've already picked out the place where you can take us."

"We?" Shepard raised the other brow.

"Me and Garrus." Tali tilted her head at the turian who stood behind the others. "They have this dextro washabi blend that we both want to try."

The turian chimed in. "We can talk about this later. We just wanted to check on you and see that you're alright. We should let you rest."

Tali teased. "He wants to get out of here to get back to Mimi T'Soni." She turned to Garrus, "How long are you going to hoard her in the Main Battery?"

Liara explained to Shepard, "I took a transport to Illium before Vido's men captured me, but Seryna has brought the Benezia here to pick me up. She brings Mimi every time we rendezvous with the Normandy because a certain turian and Dr. Chakwas convinced her that they're Mimi's surrogate father and mother."

Garrus rubbed the back of his neck. "It isn't like that. I just wanted to modify the enviro-control in Mimi's carrying case so that she's more comfortable when she sleeps. I've got to have her test it."

"Hoarding her." Tali insisted as she followed Garrus out of the med bay.

Miranda's voice brought Shepard's attention back to more serious matters. "We've only completed the first part of our plan. Now I'll take the lead on tracking down where the leak is on our previous mission on Illium and how they got to Liara." And she motioned at Zaeed who leaned against a desk. "Mr. Massani might provide us with some intel. But I wanted you to hear it and ask him what questions you might have."

"You founded the Blue Suns?" Shepard looked at the dossier Miranda handed her and the shock edged her voice. "How did you find Vido and Liara on Zorya?"

Zaeed crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Simple. Cerberus sent me a message about Vido doing a job on the old base. I got there when he brought Liara to the plant and I was ready to put a bullet through his head. But the illustrious Miss Goto put on a show for me. I could have taken him out anytime I wanted, but who am I to interfere with a master thief and her craft. So I sat back and enjoyed the show. The look on Vido's face when I ended him! It was worth every minute I spent searching for him. Pity that the little shithead that always followed Vido around wasn't there to take some ass whooping."

Liara chimed in. "Are you talking about the one with a strange haircut?"

"That's the one. With a mohawk." Zaeed waved his hand over his head to motion the hair.

Liara nodded. "He's crippled now and lives with his parents. When Vido turned back on his deal with me a few months ago, mohawk threatened to take out my kneecaps."

Zaeed sneered. "That little shithead trying to emulate me! What happened then?"

Liara said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I took out his instead."

Zaeed turned his attention back to Shepard. "A mate says a lot about a person and you have my complete respect, Shepard."

Shepard's eyes were still on Liara whose features were placid. Her Liara took out someone's kneecaps, and she was doing a deal with Vido. It took some doing for Shepard to refocus her attention back to Zaeed. "So Vido betrayed you and now you've taken your revenge. But you still want to join my mission."

Zaeed could hear the distrust in Shepard's voice. "After Vido shot me, I don't trust my life to anyone but myself. But I'm not blind. I still got one good eye that sees things clearly. What you did on the Citadel with that turian bastard and the geth, I figured you're in some deep shit again and you need all the help you can get. I'm paid to do a job, and I'm going to make damn sure I get it done or die trying. As long as you're straight with me, once I take your money and give you my word, I don't go back on it even if it might cost me everything. Man's got to have a principle, and that's mine. Take it or leave it."

Shepard found she couldn't argue with that. "That's simple enough."

Zaeed straightened from the desk he was leaning against, "I'm a simple man, Shepard. I had three passions in life, killing Vido, taking back my baby the Suns and keeping my old mate Jessie close. I've done the killing. After I play the big goddamn hero I'll get my old enterprise in order with Jessie by my side and I'll be a happy man. Damn happy. So let's go and kick some Collectors ass, shall we?" With that he walked out of the door.

Shepard looked at Miranda but before she said anything, an apparition approached her bed, and then the edges of the ghostly image cracked and filled with a hood figure. The painted lips moved but the hood shrouded the eyes. "Not so fast! I didn't hack into the Shadow Broker's network and spend a week playing hide and seek with a bunch of ninny brains for nothing. I must say though, I've never had so much fun not stealing anything valuable. But I have unfinished business with Liara."

"You hacked into my network and left the trace for me to follow?" Liara asked.

"Your network? I traced an inquiry of a graybox in a private auction. That was you?"

Liara's eyes suddenly widened. "You're that Kasumi? As in Keiji's Kasumi?"

Kasumi tilted her head up and her eyes shone in the shadows of her hood. With her trembling lips she breathed out. "You… you know about Keiji and his graybox? How?"

Liara moved to stand in front of the thief and she held the thief's arms. "I was with him when he… died. He left a recording for you and I have been trying to track you down since. You are extremely difficult to find." Liara initiated a memory meld after Kasumi barely had enough courage to nod her agreement, and showed the thief the last moments of her love on the old Shadow Broker's decoy ship, and then she popped a small disc from her omni-tool that recorded Keiji's dying words to Kasumi and handed it to the thief.

Tears streaked down on the hooded face as the thief brushed the disc in her palm, but she couldn't find her voice. Liara took Kasumi in her arms and hugged her. "He loved you very much and you now know who has the graybox."

"Donovan Hock."

Miranda asked, "But how did you track Liara down on Zorya?"

Kasumi wiped her face with her sleeve. "That was easy. I left the trace while hacking into her network that would lead her to Illium and waited there to see who'd show up. I was going to type a message on the billboard Liara was standing next to and tell her the location to meet me in person when Vido's men grabbed her. She was my only lead to find out what happened to Keiji, so I followed Vido's men to their ship that took them to the refinery plant on Zorya."

Miranda knitted her brows. "But it still doesn't explain how Vido's men knew exactly when and where Liara was to kidnap her. My father wouldn't have known so much about Liara."

Kasumi asked, "You said you've put a trace on the ransom message? Can I look at that? I'm pretty good at connecting dots."

Miranda looked at Shepard. "It couldn't hurt." And seeing the Commander nod her permission, the Cerberus operative turned to the thief. "Come on, let me show you what I have."

With the room finally quiet, Shepard turned to the asari. "What just happened here raised a lot of questions. I'd like to hear more about what you did before I came back. But the most urgent thing I'd like to do right now is what you did with Kasumi but in a different fashion."

The asari knew this day would come when she had to confess to Shepard about all the things she'd done before the Commander's return. She suppressed a sense of dread and followed the human's lead on the other matter. "You mean the melding?"

Shepard nodded with a hopeful look on her face. "Tell me what I have to do to get out of here and take you to my cabin."

"If you disobey Dr. Chakwas' orders you know she'll only goad me later."

Shepard flipped the sheets over and hopped down from the bio bed on one leg. "That sounds like an invitation to me."

"Shepard!" The human's action caught the asari by surprise. "That was not an invitation."

"Yes, it was. By the time Dr. Chakwas finishes playing with Mimi in the Main Battery, you'd be on your way back to the Benezia. She'll have nobody but me to goad and I'm used to that. So I take that as an open invitation."

The asari laughed. "You are indeed very impossible." She slid her arms under Shepard's and held her steady on one leg and put her lips on the human's.

"Looks like I'm just in time to enjoy the show." The door to the med bay hissed open once again and Aethyta walked in.

"Father!" Liara greeted Aethyta with a hug, which the Matriarch accepted gladly.

"You look well, kiddo." Aethyta held her daughter's arms and ran her eyes up and down the younger asari's body.

"Yes. I only suffered from minor water inhalation and Dr. Chakwas has cleared the toxins from my system. I have fully recovered."

Satisfied with her daughter, Aethyta's attention turned to the human standing against the bed. "And you. I hear you acted irrationally in the refinery plant, didn't keep a cool head." She paused and enjoyed the defiant look on Shepard's face. "You couldn't wait for the combat drone to disable the turrets?"

"Could you?" Shepard called Aethyta's bluff.

Aethyta dropped her act. "You did exactly what I expected you to. My little girl is safe with you."

Liara couldn't help but get back to her father. "And I hear you dumped an extraordinarily large amount of ordnance on the surface of Zorya."

"A whole lot of good it did, but it did make me feel better."

Shepard shook her head in disagreement. "Without your fireworks we couldn't have gotten to Liara that fast, and Vido might have blown the whole plant up. He sure set up a lot of explosives. You helped save your daughter's life and I won't forget that."

Aethyta turned to her daughter. "I've been summoned back to Thessia. Malayne and Jamaya have an important matter to discuss with me in person. I'd appreciate it if you could check in with me regularly."

Liara nodded. "I can't help but feel someone has set some kind of event in motion and I would feel a lot better if I know you are safe as well. I shall ask Feron and Nightshade to set up a direct comm link between us so that we can keep track of each other."

Aethyta smiled. "I'd like that. I'd like that very much. Now, where were you before I busted in? Oh, right. You had some _fucking _business to attend to. So I'll leave you to it."

"Father!" Liara watched her father's back disappear when the med bay door slid shut.

"I like her style. Always cut to the chase." Shepard didn't hide her face that was turned red at the word "fucking" and she took a step on her recovering leg and took a sharp breath as pain shot up. Liara held her immediately and felt the tensing of the soldier's body.

"Perhaps you should listen to Dr. Chakwas for once and stay in bed." Liara wrapped an arm around Shepard's back and used her other hand to cradle the back of the soldier's head.

Shepard could feel perspiration forming and the pain on her leg radiated through her body. After the thresher maw's venom burned her shoulder, Miranda had told her why her injuries would feel more painful than it used to on her old body. "The implants give your brain more acute feedback on every part of your body. That's why you can run faster and your reflexes are better. Unfortunately that holds true when you're injured. Your brain has to learn how to deal with the more acute feedback on the damaged nerves and unlike your movement, it's not a fast process."

Fighting the nausea in her stomach, Shepard laced her arms behind Liara's neck and buried her face in the asari's shoulder. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to squeeze out the stars dancing in front of them. When the pain finally subsided, she let out an even breath. "I have a bed in my cabin and I much prefer to spend every minute with you uninterrupted before you leave. I was so scared when I thought I might lose you. I didn't care about the Reapers or the Collectors. Let them come, what do I care if I don't have you? What do I care if die tomorrow or when they destroy the galaxy?"

The soldier spoke softly into the asari's shoulder and the asari rubbed her chin on the soldier's head and kissed her face to sooth her pain. "That was how I felt when I lost you. When I left your body on the Lazarus Research Station, I was broken. I had to kill people and let Feron be captured and I hated anyone who got in the way of getting your body. I hated them bitterly."

Shepard lifted her head and met her eyes to the asari's, she saw moisture forming in the depth of blue. But the asari didn't stop talking. "I did things that I was not proud of but I didn't care. As long as I could get you back, I'd do them all over again."

Shepard held the asari's face with both hands and kissed her lips. "I wanted to hear about what you did before I returned because it was a profound experience for you and I want to share it. I don't judge what you did, and after Zorya, I can only understand it more. I only feel guilty that you had to go through that, for me, for giving me this second chance."

They made their way back to the Loft in each other's arms and found a container of cookies Gardner had left by the door. Liara asked Shepard, "Did you eat anything these past few days?"

Shepard blinked a few times. "I don't remember actually. I don't remember going to the mess hall at all."

Liara showed the Commander the note on the cookie container. "You need to eat something! I've baked your favorite cookies, not the healthiest thing for your body, but I'm hoping you put some food in it this time. –Your Mess Sergeant"

Liara helped Shepard into bed and put her injured leg on a pillow. "Better?"

"Nope." The human settled in bed against a stack of pillows. "You're still fully dressed."

"That can be remedied." The asari's voice lingered. "Which piece would you like me to remove first?"

The teasing tone in the asari's low voice sent Shepard's heart fluttering. She chewed her lower lip and thought for a moment. "How about the shoes first? I miss seeing your feet."

As the asari stripped her light armor from bottom to top, she peeled off the last piece to reveal her ample breasts. Looking at her soldier's gaping mouth the asari breathed out. "Saving the best for last?"

Shepard shook her head. "I've enjoyed watching every inch of you. Now can you please take that sexy body over here so that I don't have to hop on my lame leg and attack you where you stand?"

Liara stepped around the armor pieces on the floor and approached the soldier. "Thought you'd never ask."


	34. Chapter 34 See No Evil

**Second Life**

**Chapter Thirty-Four – See No Evil**

The dungeons on Omega were really a connection of tunnels dotted with old mine shafts converted into individual or group cells. Slavers under Aria's protection rented the large cells as holding pens when they brought in slaves to trade. Aria herself seldom paid visit down here or used the dungeons. She killed to set examples and instill fear; hiding someone in the dungeon did little to reinforce her reputation as a ruthless ruler. But she made an exception for her old nemesis, Ox.

Ever since Aethyta captured Ox in the Omega mines and handed her to Aria, the pirate queen had had her dragged in and out of the dungeon so many times, and each time when Aria's men brought her back to her cell, she'd lie on the cold cement floor for days. Aria had ordered extra security to keep this cunning asari in the dungeon: two guards at her cell door round the clock and only the caretaker was allowed in and out of the cell to delivery food and water.

Ox woke up in her cell after another round of torture from the day before, she raised her head from the floor and stopped short as pain lanced through her spine and pounded her head that threatened to explode. She lowered her head and took a few shallow breaths. "You won't win, you fucking bitch!" She cursed under her breath. It had been weeks since she was captured and Ox knew that no one would rescue her. Cerberus hired her to do a drug run and there was no love lost when their new drug mule disappeared. It was her own fault really, using the drug trading opportunity for her own gain, but she realized now that it was naïve of her to not fully understand the power Rouge's little bitch had mustered; and if she ever got out of here, she'd have to form a better plan to topple the self proclaimed "Pirate Queen" and take Omega for herself. She didn't plot this for centuries without a backup plan, if only she could get word out. Perhaps she could work on the guards to help her. They were mercenaries after all, promises of large sums of credits ought to do the trick and she'd throw in key positions in her new regime should she take the power from Aria. She just needed to be exceedingly convincing.

The door opened. A batarian guard tilted his head to signal the caretaker to pass through the door and instructed, "Make sure she eats and drinks something. Aria wasn't pleased with this last torture session. Said she had become too weak to give good screams." Without looking at the captive, the guard shut the door behind the asari who was holding a bowl in one hand and a water cup in another. Ox looked up at the caretaker without lifting her head.

"Help me sit up." Her voice was low but it came out as an order nonetheless. The caretaker hesitated for a moment and ran her eyes along the woman on the floor – she'd never seen an asari with such a big form and she wondered how tall she'd look if she stood up. The caretaker put down the things she carried and moved to a position behind Ox. She slid her hands under the big asari's arms and started to drag her towards the wall. Explosive pain shook Ox from her spine to every nerve on her body, and as she let out a loud scream her hips started convulsions that flapped her legs on the cement floor. The caretaker lost her grip as the shakes jerked her hands away, but she got down on her knees and wrapped her arms around the convulsing form and held it to her own body until the shakes were gone.

The large woman coughed and the caretaker gently put her down on the floor to fetch the water cup and food bowl. The moment she put the wound asari on the floor, the hard cement pushed on her spine and her body started shaking again. The caretaker quickly returned and she heaved the shaking shoulders up and held them against her body. With her free hand, the smaller woman raised the water cup to the edge of the large woman's trembling lips. "You need to drink some water."

Swallowing gulps of water then catching her breath, Ox willed her body to calm down, but the implants on her spine sent shooting pain to her spinal cord every time she swallowed. Her gracious hostess had given her the implants before throwing her into the dungeon to ensure that she experienced pain during and after the torture. The needling sensation she was experiencing now could not compare to the agonizing zaps on her spinal cord Aria employed as her torture method that sent her body into a mess of convulsions and drained her energy completely without giving her the bliss of unconsciousness that usually followed. The needling pain continued after the torture, even when she seemed oblivious to the world around her, her inner assaults continued and the only telltale sign of that was the unwanted tears of pain she despised her body for shedding.

A small and callused finger wiped her tears away and the soft voice cut through the fog of pain again. "Can you swallow some food?"

Ox scrambled away from the smaller woman's hold and crawled to the wall and pressed her back against it. Another screaming pain came, she shut her eyes and bit hard on her jaw but she put up a hand to stop the small woman from touching her. It took long few moments before she opened her eyes again and with shaky breaths, she ordered. "Give me the bowl."

The caretaker moved her worried gaze from the larger asari's face and poured the rest of the water into the food bowl. "This will make the food easier to swallow." And she stirred the food with her finger.

"Just give me the damn bowl!" Ox ordered once more through her shuddering teeth as she braced both arms around her body, trying in vain to stop the shaking.

The caretaker held up the small bowl to her, Ox took it with one hand but the shakiness in her hand almost spilled the bland looking porridge. She braced it with her other hand and it only made it worse as her hands jerked in different directions. The cold cement wall was pressing excruciating pain into her spine and her fingers felt on fire. Cool hands calmed the fire and Ox opened her eyes and saw the smaller woman had wrapped her hands around hers to steady the bowl.

"Help me eat it." Ox's voice was shaky but she let go of the bowl and pressed her hands on the floor to hold her body off the wall. Dungeon rations didn't come with utensils. The smaller woman curved her fingers to spoon out the food and patiently fed the food to the wounded woman.

Food and water seemed to have calmed the pain and the large asari started to let her body lean back against wall. But she slid to one side as soon as her back touched the wall. The smaller asari caught her sliding body and held her as the wound woman drifted to rest with her eyes half closed.

The door opened loudly and the batarian guard stepped in. "What are you doing?"

The smaller asari jumped but she still held the other asari whose head was resting on her shoulder. "There isn't a bed here and her spine seems broken, she can't lie down on the hard floor or against the cement wall."

The batarian walked swiftly to the smaller asari and picked up her wrist and dragged her easily to her feet. "Your only job is to make sure she eats and drinks. It doesn't include providing comfort to a cold-blooded murderer. If Aria hears about this, she'll have your head!"

As the guard dragged the caretaker out the door, she glanced back and saw the other asari fell sideways on the floor and her mild shakes had started again.

The following couple of weeks Aria didn't send word to bring her prisoner for another torturing session. Ox had heard about the business with Archangel making a mess of the gangs on Omega. No doubt Rouge's little whore was busy making deals for her own gain while the major gangs licked their wounds. Without the intense torture on her implants, Ox had trained her body to deal with the needling pain and she was able to eat and drink, and she even walked around her cell with her hand bracing the wall. One day Aria called for the batarian guard to go to Afterlife for a briefing, and that left only the human guard who allowed the caretaker to spend more time in Ox's cell.

The caretaker had taken her own companion to show the other asari, a white mouse she kept in a small cage hidden in her skirt folds. "His name is Ion because he can run very fast." She lifted the tiny door and let the mouse stand on her fingers and then climb to the back of her hand. She talked in a soft voice to the sleeping asari on the floor. "He's my friend and I wanted him to meet you. I told him that I've made a new friend and he got all excited." The mouse let out a small squeaking sound and sniffed the sleep woman's face.

"Get off of me!" Ox opened her eyes and pushed the caretaker away and the animal scurried into a corner. The smaller woman went after the animal and cradled it back to its tiny cage, and then she looked back at Ox from a distance with puzzled and hurt look. Ox took a deep breath - it was a reaction out of habit that she had cultivated for centuries. Ever since her commando years, she had taught herself to distant from those that surrounded her. Soldiers moved from unit to unit in regular rotations and died in real and simulated battles; there was no point to get close to anyone, not after the childhood she had where her parents fought each other consistently yet neither was willing to leave the glass castle they both hated. Her life would not be filled with that kind of pain, the young asari had made herself a promise and kept it for centuries. Instead she focused her energy on getting work that paid better after she left the military and building a small gang that specialized in drug trafficking. She succeeded in her ventures until Rouge came along and took what was hers. She had to kill Rouge because she was in her way to become a bigger player in the lucrative drug trade, and it was nothing personal. She may be in Rouge's little whore's grip now, but it wouldn't be for long, she promised herself. She'd endure the whore's indulgence to inflict pain on her and she'd find a way out. She turned her gaze away from the smaller asari holding the tiny mouse and steeled herself for another round of torture that would come soon enough.

In the following weeks, the caretaker was instructed only to put the food bowl and water cup down by the door and leave the cell immediately. Many times when she returned, she'd find the last batch of food and water untouched. The large asari's shaking form moved closer to the door each time but never quite made it. On the third day after one torturing session, the caretaker looked at the batarian holding the door for her. "She hasn't eaten and drunk anything for three days. Does Aria want her to die?"

The batarian's voice was booming. "If she dies you die! Aria wants her alive and screaming!"

"Then let me get some food and water in her. I don't care what happens to me. If she dies, what will Aria do to you?"

The batarian blinked all of his four eyes. "How long will it take?"

"Long enough to get her to eat and drink."

"Fine." The batarian gave in. "Knock on the door when you're ready to come out."

Carefully to not touch the large asari, the caretaker put the water cup in the slightly trembling hand and tapped on the large asari's shoulder. "There's a water cup in your hand. You should try and drink some."

The large asari didn't move. The caretaker tapped her again and again she didn't get a response. The caretaker moved closer and saw the large woman's eyes half shut and she was trying to say something. The smaller asari put her ear next to the mouth that was letting out shaky breaths. "Help… me."

The caretaker slid her hand under the woman's face and tried to lift her head, but sharp pain instigated a loud grunt and the large woman's head started to bob in the small woman's hand. The caretaker stopped her action but the large woman suddenly grabbed her wrist and pushed out a barking order. "Get me up!" And then violent shakes followed.

Ignoring the painful grunting and the jerking shoulders, the caretaker lifted the large woman to a sitting position in one heave and then held her tightly. The large woman buried her face in the smaller woman's shoulder as tears of pain streamed out uncontrollably and spread into the smaller woman's gray dress. The caretaker stroked the side of the wounded woman's head and whispered soothing sounds. When the shaking body calmed a little, the caretaker tipped the water cup and dripped a little bit of water through the cracked lips. Coughing, the large woman's hands swatted wildly, almost knocking the water up out of the smaller woman's hand. But after the first couple of swallows, her body calmed down visibly. She tried to lift her head up, only succeeding for a few seconds and then her head fell back on the smaller woman's shoulder. The caretaker took up the food bowl and indicated to the large woman. The wound woman nodded even though she had little energy left to keep her eyes open. She grabbed a fistful of the smaller woman's skirt and squeezed it tightly for every bite of food she had to swallow. It hurt when she swallowed, her esophagus felt inflamed. But she didn't stop until the bowl was empty. She didn't taste the food, only the salty tears that had streamed down her face and into her mouth, and it burned her throat even more.

"What do you want from me?" Ox asked. Glancing at the confused look on the caretaker's face, she added. "Why are you helping me?"

The caretaker wiped Ox's tears with her sleeve. "I've not seen a lot of my kind down here before."

Ox grunted. "I'm not your kind. You're a pathetic slave. I'll own this rock some day. You hear me? Own Omega!" She raised her head to make her point, but the shooting pain stopped her and she rested her head on the smaller woman's shoulder once again.

Oddly she found comfort in this stranger's arms. She ran her eyes indiscreetly up and down the small asari's body. An unremarkable gray dress of undistinguished shape draped over the body, skinnier than most maidens' but her face and hands showed her age – she was at least a couple of centuries old and perhaps even more. It was a rare sight to see an asari as a slave since batarians usually forced red sand addicts who couldn't pay for their addiction into slavery and asari were immune to it, or they raided small colonies to capture innocents and turned them into slaves. They hadn't dared such an adventure since Esan, which was now under batarian's control. "Damn jackals!" Ox hated batarians because of Esan. She had a lucrative and legit investment riding on that colony and the batarians ruined it when they attacked it. She vowed when she took over Omega from Rouge's bitch, she'd kick every single batarian off the station or better yet, shoot them out of the airlocks. She huffed at the thought and returned her gaze to the small asari. Even rarer to see an asari slave who wasn't dressed in a thin and revealing outfit to attract buyers.

"Tell me how you got to be Aria's shit shoveller." With her violent shakes finally settled, the large asari asked.

"The batarian who owned me died and nobody could buy me. So Aria owns me now." The smaller woman was happy to see her charge was in talking mood.

"According to batarian custom, you should go to his next of kin."

"They all died."

"Why couldn't anyone buy you?"

"I was captured in Halica in a battle between asari commandos and batarian slavers and most of the commandos died in the battle and I was alone waiting on the edge of a forest. I was in training to be a field medic and was ordered to wait outside the battle perimeter for calls if they needed additional help. And when the call came, I rushed into the forest but it was burning everywhere, so I circled the forest to find an entry point and that was when I ran into the batarian forces that came down from the hills to attack us. After I was captured my master installed a chip in my bone that says nobody can buy me. I was bound only to my master. But he died a long time ago in a fight and then his brother owned me and then it was his cousin, but they all died. And since the last of them died here on Omega, Aria became my default owner because she owns the station."

Ox lifted her head and stared at the smaller woman. "No she doesn't! She might rule Omega, but she doesn't own it. And that's her biggest mistake. She could have been a landlord if she had drafted a deed for the entire rock, but she didn't. When I take over the control that's the first thing I'll do: draw a deed and become the owner of the station. And since she didn't pay for you because you can't be sold and she isn't related to the batarian's family who owned you, she doesn't own you either. She may be providing food and lodging for you but you're earning it with your work in the dungeons. She doesn't own you more than she does those guards outside. You're no different from other mercenaries who take her money and do her dirty work."

Shocked, the smaller asari's lips trembled. Every word sounded credible but how could this be? She had been under Aria's ownership for so long! "But she's my mistress!" She whispered.

"She's nobody's mistress! You're a free woman."

"But I can't be free!" The smaller woman's face appeared withdrawn, as though her mind lived in another place. "When my first master died I asked the goddess to find me a way to die too, but she didn't. I gave myself to my second master fully, my body and my mind. Then he died, and I once again asked the goddess to take me. She left me to go with another master. It is her will for me to serve my masters. Who would I be if I'm without a master?" She dropped her hold on the large woman and started pacing the room.

Ox watched the caretaker's grim expression as though the world would end the next moment. She pushed herself to her knees and tested her balance. "Do you remember who you were before Halica?"

"Yes, I was an orphan and I grew up in a temple where the priestess took care of me. I joined commando training when I reached my maiden age but I didn't complete my training before I was captured."

"Perhaps you could go back to the temple."

"I can't betray my mistress." The caretaker stopped her pacing and shouted her objection at the ceiling.

"Aria isn't your mistress!" Ox pushed a hand on the wall to help her stand up. Though her legs felt hollow the large asari took several unsteady steps to stand in front of the smaller woman. "How do you know Aria doesn't consider you as her employee? Has she declared that she owns you or shown you the ownership papers? No, she won't ever see you either because you don't belong to her. Ask the guard if you can see Aria and ask her yourself if you don't believe me."

"You're wrong!" The caretaker barked and her eyes were on fire. She pushed away the hands Ox had rested on her shoulders with such force that it made the large asari stumble backwards and fall on the floor again. "You're wrong!" This time there was sadness and foreboding in her voice as she urgently pounded her fists on the cell door.

The human guard let her out and Ox heard the caretaker ask, "Can I see my mistress?"

The human laughed, "Who's your mistress? Aria? Why would she want to see _you_?"

In the following days, the caretaker came to Ox's cell and put the food and water down and left immediately despite Ox's attempts to talk. Finally one day she asked the human guard to give her some time with the prisoner. After the cell door was shut behind her, she walked to the large asari. "If I help you escape, can you take me with you? If I don't belong to Aria then I don't belong here."

This new development filled Ox with giddy anticipation. She hadn't considered this quiet asari as her escape route but she knew this was a gift she couldn't afford to refuse. But first she had to test this stranger to make sure she could be trusted.

"Help me stand up." Ox gave her hand to the smaller woman to pull her to her feet. The needling pain on her spine jabbed at her senses but she gritted her teeth and straightened her back. "Stand with you back against mine." She ordered the smaller woman. As they stood back to back, Ox started, "In Storm Commando unit, we took oath this way to commit ourselves to the person fighting next to you to always protect each other's back. Since you were once a commando, this oath binds you to me. From now on, your job is to watch my back. Do you accept that oath?"

"I accept." The large asari's shoulders shook and her legs gave in to the weight of her body. The smaller woman caught her fallen companion and lowered her to the floor. "But I want something more."

"Of course you do." Ox smiled. "Name your terms. Credits, positions, anything."

The smaller asari's lips trembled and she tightened her fists as though she was gathering courage for what she was about to ask. "When you draw up a deed to own the station, I want you to draw a deed to own me as well. Can you do that for me?"

Ox's smile disappeared. She found herself profoundly stirred by these words and could not explain her emotion. She never believed one sentient being could own another, which was why she was never in the slave trade and she hated the batarians who traded slaves. She strived to be a successful businesswoman and she'd even kill or maim for business deals, but she never wanted to own anybody. Not even the goddess owned anyone, only the souls of the dead. No good omen could come from this, she thought, as her features remained immobile.

Tears started to stream down on the smaller asari's face as she nervously watched the large asari, the sign of agony intensified with each passing moment of silence. "Oh, goddess! You don't want me either." She whispered her fear through trembling breaths and slowly she backed away towards the door, but her eyes remained focused on the large asari. Still seeing no response, the caretaker swallowed a sob, "Then there's truly no place in this galaxy for me to go." She turned and raised a hand to knock on the door.

"Wait!" Ox struggled to stand up again. "Next time you come in here bring a piece of paper and a pen, I'll write a temporary deed that'll make you mine and nobody else's, forever. So you don't ever have to worry about ownership again. I'll make it official with my volus accountant once we get out of here. But the next time you walk out of this cell you'll be mine."

Relieved, the smaller woman dropped to her knees and buried her face in her skirt and started sobbing. The large asari moved her shaky legs and crashed unceremoniously next to the smaller woman. She grabbed the sobbing asari's arms and shook her to lift her head. "But first I have to know if I can count on you. Do you have access to a terminal?"

Tearfully the smaller asari nodded. "I order all the food and supplies for this place and I coordinate the laundry service and maintenance. I have full access to a terminal."

"Good! I'll give you an Extranet address, a code and a message to send. If you're successful at sending it, we might just get out of here. Can I count on you?"

The smaller asari wiped her face with her skirt and took a deep breath. She fixed a firm stare on the large asari's eyes. "I won't let you down."

For the first time in her life, Ox knew one person would not betray her even if her own life were depending on it.

In the mid-day just when the caretaker brought lunch for both the guards and the prisoner on a large tray, the sound of music came from the tunnel behind them. A hanar with a flute appeared around the bend. The batarian guard turned to his human colleague, "What's this?"

The human guard shrugged, "Ah, it must be that hangar preacher who always hangs out in the dungeons singing some kind of hanar prayer for the slaves. Aria turns a blind eye and lets it do what it wants."

Music became louder. With a few very smooth hops of its sinuous back, the hangar was standing in front of the guards. The door into the cell where the wounded asari lay on the floor was open and the caretaker was holding food and water by the door, the hanar faced the batarian. "Greetings. This one brings watery chant that our Enkindlers had taught us in hopes of soothing tormented souls. Would you permit this one to recite the prayer to your charge?"

The batarian waved his hand. "Get out of here. Nobody will sing anything here. It's a restricted area."

The hanar didn't move. "One can restrict one's body but a soul cannot be bound unwillingly. This one only wishes to make those who don't see the world around them see."

The batarian guard moved a step closer. "You know it's an insult to a batarian when you accuse them of not seeing things around them?" He blinked both sets of eyes, "Are you trying to insult me?"

The hanar backed up a bit, "The Enkindlers did not teach us how to insult and this one certainly does not intend to be impolite. This one merely refers to the world our bodies occupy that our minds do not see or understand."

The human guard chimed in. "Then how do you see what can't be seen?"

The hanar bounced a little at the human's question. "Through music one may become enlightened. This one only wishes to bring enlightenment to the sufferers who know only darkness." The hanar raised one of its tentacles at the asari on floor.

The batarian didn't want to give in. "This is still a restricted area."

His human colleague pulled on his arm. "Come on, let the hanar do his business, then he can leave. Aria says it's okay for the hanar to roam down here, who are we to argue?"

The hanar floated into the cell, past the caretaker and stopped in front of the asari on the floor. A tentacle touched the asari's face and raised it gently. "This one brings a prayer of the great Enkindlers whose gift of language brought enlightenment."

The sweet serenade to the hanar gods roused the wounded asari, and as she pushed herself to sit up, the caretaker came to her aid and held her in sitting position. When the music stopped, the large asari held out a hand. "May I?"

The hanar handed the flute to the asari who took a few uneven breaths and started to play a tune that sounded distinctively different from the hanar prayer. Once she finished the music, the asari held the flute to the hanar, but the hanar didn't accept it. "That music brings this one a sense of eternal loneliness, like a walk alone in the desert, a swim in a vast ocean or a single ship traveling in boundless space… You have an enormous gift of music. It's a loss to everyone that you did not pursuit it as your life's work."

"I didn't have a cosseting family that provided support for music without sacrificing the needs of the stomach." The large asari looked at the flute in her hand.

"This one wishes you to keep the instrument and may it bring you freedom of your soul." With that the hanar floated out of the cell and moved towards the other end of the junction tunnel.

Something in the way of the hanar's voice at the word "freedom" told Ox the flute held more than it appeared. How could a stranger know that she played the flute with equal ease as she played her guns? Such coincidence didn't exist, not in a place like Omega, certainly not in heavily guarded Omega dungeons. Ox hid her arm behind the caretaker's body and felt the inner tube of the flute with her other hand and took out a small piece of paper.

With the hanar gone, the batarian guard walked into the cell and he reached down and stripped the flute from Ox's hand. "If she's strong enough to play music she's strong enough to eat and drink on her own." He didn't spare his captive a look and with his free hand he grabbed the caretaker's wrist and dragged her out of the room. "Trash it." He checked the flute and pushed it into the caretaker's hands along with used food containers and he gave the small asari a shove. After the caretaker disappeared at the junction tunnel, the batarian pushed a finger in his ear and in a hushed voice he reported into his comm. "The trap is set."

Ox waited for everything to go quiet and then she looked at the note:

Escape route: vents.  
Escape time: two days 4 hours counting down at sunset chime tonight.  
Destination: Koshi Warehouse in Talons territory.


End file.
